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THE LIBRARY
THE UNIVERSITY OF
BRITISH COLUMBIA
X
THE
ENGLISH GARDENER;
A TREATISE
On the Situation, Soil, Enclosing and Laying-Out, of Kitchen Gardens; on the
Making and Managing of Hot-beds and Green-Houses; and on the Propaga-
tion and Cultivation of all sorts of Kitchen-Garden Plants, and of Fruit-Trees
whether of the Garden or the Orchard.
On the Formation of Shrubberies and Flower-Gardens ; and on the Propagation
and Cultivation of the several sorts of Shrubs and Flowers.
CONCI/UBINQ WITH
A KALENDAR,
Giving Instructions relative to the Sowings, Plantings, Prunings, and other
labours, to be performed in the Gardens, in each Month of the Year.
By WILLIAM COBBETT, M. P.
FOR OLDHAM.
" 1 went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void Of understanding
"and, lo! it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles covered the face thereof, and the slone-
" wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw and considered it well: I looked upon it, and
" received instruction."— Proverbs: chap. xxiv. ver. 30.
LONDON :
PUBLISHED AT 11, BOLT-COURT, FLEET-STREET;
AND MAY BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSK1.LEKS.
1833.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY MILLS, JOWETT, AND MILLS,
BOLT-COURT, FLEET-STREET.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER L
On the arrangement of the divers matters contained in the subsequent
Chapters, and on the method which ought to be pursued in the studying of
these matters.
CHAPTER II.
On the Situation, Form and Extent, Enclosing and Laying-out, of Kitchen -
gardens.
CHAPTER III.
On the making and managing of Hot-beds and Green-houses.
CHAPTER IV.
On Propagation and Cultivation in general.
CHAPTER V.
Kitchen-garden Plants, arranged in Alphabetical order, with Directions
relative to the Propagation and Cultivation of each sort.
CHAPTER VI.
Fruits. — Propagation, Planting, and Training and Pruning, whether wall
trees, espalieis, or standards, with an Alphabetical List of the several Fruits,
and with observations on the Diseases of Fruit-trees.
CHAPTER VII.
The formation of Shrubberies, with a List of Shrubs, and instructions as to
the Propagation and Cultivation of each sort; the formation of Flower-
gardens, with a List of Flowers, and directions for the Propagation and Culti-
vation of each sort: a List of Shrubs and Flowers, classed according to their
proper uses, or situations, in the Shrubbery, or Flower-garden. Annexed is
a Kalendar of the principal sowings, and other work, to be done in each month
of the year; and an Index.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
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THE
ENGLISH GARDENER.
CHAPTER I.
On the arrangement of the divers matters contained in the subse-
quent Chapters, and on the method which ought to be pursued in
the studying of those matters,
1 . Before we begin to study the contents of any book ; that is
to say, before we begin to endeavour to obtain a thorough know-
ledge of those contents ; we ought, if possible, to get a clear and
neat view of the outline of those contents, and of the purposes to
which they are intended to become applicable. To insist, as some
authors have done, on the utility of a knowledge of the means to
obtain garden-plants, fruits, and flowers, would be useless. It is
notorious that it is useful to have these things ; and, therefore, all
that we have to do is, to obtain a knowledge of the means of ob-
taining them in the greatest perfection, and with the least propor-
tionate quantity of expense or trouble ; and also, with the least
risk of experiencing a disappointment of our hopes.
2. There must be, of necessity, numerous divisions of the matter,
where subjects so numerous are to be treated of: and it is of great
advantage, to take a view of these several divisions before we
enter upon the treatise. And, therefore, in this chapter, I shall
endeavour to give the reader this view ; so that he will see, not
only what he is going to read about, but also the order in which
the matter is intended to be brought before him. The second
Chapter of the work will describe that which I deem to be the
proper Situation of a garden ; next, it will treat of the Soil, its
nature, its preparation, and the general mode of manuring it, and
of making provision of manure : next, of the Form of the Kitchen-
garden, and also of the extent necessary unde different circum-
B
2 ARRANGEMENT OF MATTERS [CHAP.
stances : next, of the manner of Enclosing the Garden, and of
the Walls and other Fences applicable to the purpose. The Situ-
ation having been fixed on, the Soil prepared, the Form deter-
mined on, and the enclosures made, the next thing that will be
presented to the reader will be the manner of laying out the ground
within the enclosure, whether into plats, borders, or otherwise.
3. The third Chapter will form a sort of Episode, disconnected
with the general course of the work. It will treat of the managing
of Hot-beds and Green-houses : that is to say, it will treat of the
management of things which are to be produced by artificial heat ;
and that are cultivated by rules exclusively adapted to this species
of gardening. I shall not treat of Hot-houses, the management of
those being a science of itself, having nothing to do with gardening
in general, and of use to comparatively very few persons. My
object will be to make a book of general utility; to do this, mo-
derate bulk and moderate price are requisites ; and, to have these,
the management of hot-houses must be necessarily excluded.
4. The fourth Chapter will treat of Propagation and Culti-
vation in general. First, of the sort of the seed, and of the
methods of procuring true seed, and of ascertaining whether it be
sound : next, of the manner of harvesting and of preserving seeds :
next, of the manner of sowing seeds; next, of transplanting plants:
next of the after cultivation, until the plant be fit for the uses for
which it is intended.
5. After these general observations on propagation and culti-
vation, there will follow in Chapter V. a complete list, in alpha-
betical order, of all kitchen-garden plants, including pot-herbs,
with particular instructions relative to each plant ; so that these
instructions, together with the reader's previous knowledge re-
specting propagation and cultivation in general, will leave nothing
that will be unknown to him with regard to the kitchen-garden
plants and pot-herbs.
6. Next in Chapter VI. will come the important subject of
Fruits. This Chapter will treat of the manner of propagating,
rearing up, planting, pruning, and cultivating fruit-trees ; whether
wall-trees, espaliers, or standards, and whether for the garden or
the orchard ; also of those plants of inferior size which bring us
gooseberries, currants, raspberries, and strawberries. After the
instructions which will be given under these heads, and which will
include observations on the diseases of fruit-trees, and on the
II.] IN THE WOllK. 3
manner of curing those diseases, and of protecting the trees
against the depredations of birds, vermin, and insects, will come
an alphabetical list of fruits, noticing, under each name, anything
peculiar and necessary to be known, respecting the management of
the tree or plant.
7. The seventh, and last Chapter, will treat of the formation
of Shrubberies and Flower-gardens ; will point out the proper
shrubs suited to the several possible situations, and the several
Flowers desirable to have as ornaments, together with the manner
of placing them in the shrubberies or flower-gardens. Under the
head of Shrubberies, there will be an alphabetical list of shrubs,
with instructions against each relative to its propagation, pruning
and cultivation- The same will follow in the case of Flower-
gardens ; so that here also, with the general instructions taken
into view, the reader will possess all the information necessary
relative to these matters.
8. Having thus obtained a knowledge with respect to what is
to be done relative to every plant and tree known in the gardens,
the work will conclude with the Kalendar, described in the title-
page ; a very convenient thing, even for gardeners themselves ;
and much more convenient for those whose pursuits in life neces-
sarily render it impossible that the garden should be an object
of their constant attention. Something depends upon the situa-
tion, and also upon the nature of the ground: for, in some
ground, you may safely sow a fortnight earlier; and, in other
ground, a fortnight later, than the fit season for sowing in the
general run of ground. Nevertheless, this Kalendar is of great
use in all cases ; because without it, many pieces of necessary work
would be wholly omitted. The performance of them would be put
off to a season so late, that to perform them would be of no use
at all.
9. In the writing of this book, I shall proceed upon the prin-
ciple, or, rather, the admitted assumption, that the reader is
wholly unacquainted with all the matters of which it will treat.
On the same principle I have proceeded in my three grammars;
in mv Cottage Economy ; in my Woodlands ; and in every work
in which 1 have attempted to 'teach anything. Experience has
taught me the necessity of proceeding in this way ; for, when I
have had to apply to books to be my teachers, I have invariably
found that the authors proceed upon the notion that the reader
b2
4 ARRANGEMENT OF MATTERS [CHAP.
only wanted a little teaching ; that he understood a great part of
the subject, and only wanted information relative to that part
which the author happened to think of the greatest importance.
By looking on the reader as knowing nothing at all about the
matter, the author is led to tell all that he knows. This can do
gardeners, and gentlemen who have studied something of garden-
ing, no harm ; while it must be good, and even necessary, to
those who have never had an opportunity of paying close attention
to the matter. I make no apology for the minuteness with which
I shall give my instructions ; for my business is to teach that
which I know; and those who want no teaching, do not want
my book. My opinion is, that any man who is so disposed, may
become a good gardener by strictly attending to this work. If I
knew of any other work so likely to effect this purpose, I should
not undertake this. It is useless to know how to write, unless bv the
use of that talent we communicate something useful to others.
The reason why books on gardening are read in general with so little
benefit, is this; that they are put together by men (generally
speaking, observe) who, though they understand how to do the
thing themselves, and though they very sincerely wish to teach
others, are unable to convey their instructions in language easily to
be understood ; and easily it must be, to be attended with suc-
cess ; for, the moment the reader comes to what he cannot under-
stand, he begins to be weary ; and, the third or fourth occurrence
of this sort makes him lay down the book. If he ever take it up
again, it is from sheer necessity : and, instead of delight, disgust is
likely to be the end of the attempt.
10. The far greater part of persons who possess gardens, and
who occasionally partake in the management of them, really know
very little about the matter. They possess no principles relating
to the art : they do things pretty well, because they have seen
them done before ; but, for want of proceeding upon principle,
that is to say, for the want of knowing the reasons for doing the
several things that are done in the garden, they are always in a
state of uncertainty : they know nothing of the causes, and, there-
fore, are always rather guessing at, than relying upon, the effects.
1 shall endeavour, in every case, to give a good reason for that
which I recommend; and, when once the learner knows the rea-
son for that which he does, he may be said to have learnt it, and
not before. Lord Bacon is well known to have taken great delight
I.] IN THE WORK. |
in horticulture as well as in agriculture ; and Mr. Titll, in his
famous work on the Horse-hoeing husbandry, relates, that his
Lordship, who had made a vast collection of books on these sub-
jects, had them one day all collected together, omitting not one ;
bad the pile carried into the court-yard, and there set on fire ;
saving, " In all these books I find no principles ; they can, there-
" fore, be of no use to any man ; he must get principles for him-
" self, or he must go on till the elements have instructed him ;
" and, in either case, he can stand in no need of books like these."
11. As to the manner of studying this book of mine, I would
advise the reader to begin by reading it all through, from the
beginning to the end; and not to stop here or there, to learn one
part of it at a time. If he were to do this three times over, it would
only require the time frequently devoted to three or four volumes of
a miserable novel. This would give him an enlarged general view
of the whole matter; and he might then apply himself to any par-
ticular part of which he might more immediately stand in need of
knowledge in detail. This is not a work of that kind which would
require to be transcribed to be firmly fixed in the mind : three
careful readings from the beginning to the end might suffice, until
the reader came to put the instructions in practice ; and then he
would go into the detail, being particularlv attentive not to omit
any part of that which the book recommended him to do ; for, a
part omitted, may, and frequently does, render all that is done of
no use. Mr. 'Full very justly complained that those who con-
demned his scheme (and it is curious that Voltaire was one of
these), and asserted that they had tried it and found it to fail,
always omitted some one thing, which omission rendered the other
operations abortive. Mr. Tull said, " Their great error is in the
" misuse of the word IT: they say they have tried IT : they have
" tried some thing, to be sure ; but they have not triep my scheme."
Voltaikk, in one of his letters (I forget to whom), says, as nearly
as I can recollect the words, " J'ai essay 4 le fameux systeme de
" Monsieur Tull de l'Angleterre, et je vous avoue que je le trouve
'"' abominable."* He goes on, however, to show most satisfactorily
that it was not the system of Mr. Tull that he had tried ; for he
says, " Les intervalles, ou les espaces entre les sillons, furent, des
* I hare tried the famous system of Mr. Tui.i. of England, and I confess to you
that I find it to be abominable.
g SITUATION, SOIL, [CHAP.
f( le mois de Mai, remplis de mauvaises herbes, qui ont bientdt
" e'touffe' le ble*."* So that he had tried it after the manner of
those whom Mr. Tull had complained of in England ; that is to
sav, he had made the ridges, sowed the rows of wheat, all in very
exact proportions as to distance and everything else ; but he had
not ploughed or horse-hoed the intervals ; whereas that operation
was the very soul of the system.
12. Thus it is with but too many persons/ who complain of hav-
ing failed, though, as they allege, they have pursued the instruc-
tions given them. They do not pursue those instructions except in
part ; therefore, I beg leave to caution the reader against falling
into this error ; a caution particularly necessary to those who leave
the performance to others : it is useless to see a part done, if you
neglect to see the other parts done : with this caution, as necessary
as any that I can possibly give, I conclude this introductory chapter.
CHAPTER II.
On the Situation, Soil, Form and Extent, Enclosing, ajid Laying
out, of Kitchen- Gardens.
SITUATION.
13. If one could have what one wished, in point of situation,
from the wall on the north side of the garden, after a little flat of
about a rod wide, one would have a gentle slope towards the south,
about thirty feet in width. The remainder of the ground, to the
wall on the south side of the garden, one would have on a true
level. The gentle slope contributes to early production ; and
though it is attended with the inconvenience of washing, from heavy
rains, that inconvenience is much more than made up for by the ad-
vantage attending the circumstance of earliness. I recollect the
ancient kitchen-garden, which had been that of the monks, at
Waverley Abbey. It lay full to the south, of course; it had a high
hill to the back of it, and that hill covered with pretty lofty trees.
The wall on this north side of the garden was from twelve to four-
teen feet high, built partly of flints, and partly of the sand-stone,
* The intervals, or the spaces, between the ridpes, were, from the month of
May, full of weeds, which (juickly smothered the wheat.
I.] KM LOSING, LAVING OUT. 7
which is found in abundance in the neighbourhood, and it was about
three feet through, even at the top. The ground of which the
garden consisted had been the sloping foot of a hill, taking in a
part of the meadow that came after the hill, and lay between it and
the river Wey. A flat of about twenty feet wide had been made
on the side of the hill, and, at the back of this flat, the wall was
erected. After the flat, towards the south, began the slope j at the
end of the slope began the level ground, which grew more and
more moist as it approached the river. At the foot of the garden,
there ran a rivulet, coming from a fish-pond, and at a little distance
from that, emptying itself into the river. The hill itself was a bed
of sand j therefore, the flat, at the back of which the north wall
stood ; that is to say, the wall on the north side of the garden ;
this flat must have been made ground. The slope must have been
partly made, otherwise it would have been too sandy.
14. This was the finest situation for a kitchen-garden that I ever
saw. It was wholly torn to pieces about fifty years ago ', the wall
pulled down ; the garden made into a sort of lawn, and the lower
part of it, when I saw the spot about three years ago, a coarse,
rushy meadow, all the drains which formerly took away the oozings
from the hill, having been choked up or broken up ; and that spot
where the earliest birds used to sing, and where prodigious quanti-
ties of the finest fruits used to be borne, was become just as sterile
and as ill-looking a piece of ground, short of a mere common or
neglected field, as I ever set my eyes on. That very spot where I
had seen bushels of hautboy strawberries, such as I have never seen
from that day to this ; that very spot, the precise locality of which
it took me (so disfigured was the place !) the better part of an
hour to ascertain, was actually part of a sort of swampy meadow,
producing sedgy grass and rushes. This most secluded and beau-
tiful spot was given away by the ruthless tyrant, Henry the Eighth,
to one of the basest and greediest of his cormorant courtiers, Sir
William Fitzwilliams ; it became afterwards, according to
Grose, the property of the family of Orby Hunter ; from that
family it passed into the hands of a Sir Robert Rich, much
about fifty years ago. The monastery had been founded by Gif-
fard, bishop of Winchester, who brought to inhabit it the first
community of Cistercian monks that were settled in England. He
endowed the convent at his own expense ; gave it the manor and
estate, and gave it also the great tithes of the parish of Farnham,
S SITUATION, SOIL, [CHAP.
in which it lies. A lofty sand-hill sheltered it to the north ; others,
in the form of a crescent, sheltered it to the east. It was v/ell shel-
tered to the west ; open only to the south, and a little to the south-
west. A valley let in the river Wey atone end of this secluded spot,
and let it out at the other end. Close under the high hill on the
north side, a good mansion-house had been built by the proprietors
who succeeded the monks ; and these proprietors, though they had
embellished the place with serpentine walks and shrubberies, had
had the good taste to leave the ancient gardens, the grange, and
as much of the old walls of the convent as was standing ; and,
upon the whole, it was one of the most beautiful and interesting
spots in the world. Sir Robert Rich tore everything to atoms*
except the remaining wall of the convent itself. He even removed
the high hill at the back of the valley; actually carried it away in
carts and wheelbarrows ; built up a new-fashioned mansion-house
with grey bricks, made the place look as bare as possible ; and, in
defiance of nature, and of all the hoar of antiquity, made it very
little better than the vulgar box of a cockney.
15. I must be excused for breaking out into these complaints. It
was the spot where I first began to learn to work, or, rather, where
I first began to eat fine fruit, in a garden ; and though 1 have now
seen and observed upon as many fine gardens as any man in Eng-
land, I have never seen a garden equal to that ofWAVERLEY.
Ten families, large as they might be, including troops of servants
(who are no churls in this way), could not have consumed the fruit
produced in that garden. The peaches, nectarines, apricots, fine
plums, never failed ; and, if the workmen had not lent a hand, a
fourth part of the produce never could have been got rid of. Sir
Robert Rich built another kitchen garden, and did not spare
expense; but he stuck the walls up in a field, unsheltered by hills
and trees ; and though it was twice the size of the monks' garden,
I dare say it has never yielded a tenth part of the produce.
16. It is not every-where that spots like this are to be found;
and we must take the best that we can get, never forgetting, how-
ever, that it is most miserable taste to seek to poke away the
kitchen-garden, in order to get it out of sight. If well managed,
nothing is more beautiful than the kitchen-garden : the earliest
blossoms come there : we shall in vain seek for flowering shrubs in
March, and early in April, to equal the peaches, nectarines, apri-
cots, and plums ; late in April, we shall find nothing to equal the
II.] ENCLOSING, LAYING OUT. 9
pear a nd the cherry ; and, in May, the dwarf, or espalier, apple-
trees, are just so many immense garlands of carnations. The walks
arc unshaded : they arc not greasy or covered with mow, in the
spring of the year, like those in the shruhheries : to watch the
progress of the crops is by no means unentertaining to any rational
creature ; and the kitchen-garden gives you all this long before the
ornamental part of the garden affords you anything worth looking
at. Therefore, I see no reason for placing the kitchen-garden in
some out-of-the-way place, at a distance from the mansion-house,
as if it were a mere necessary evil, and unworthy of being viewed
by the owner. In the time of fruiting, where shall we find any-
thing much more beautiful to behold than a tree loaded with cher-
ries, peaches, or apricots, but particularly the two latter ? It is
curious enough, that people decorate their chimney-pieces with
imitations of these beautiful fruits, while they seem to think nothing
at all of the originals hanging upon the tree, with all the elegant
accompaniments of flourishing branches, buds, and leaves.
17. We must take, as I said before, the best ground that we
have ; and, for my part, I would take it almost any-where, except in
the front of a mansion-house. It must absolutely be open to the
south : well sheltered, if it can be, from the north and from the
east ; but open to the south it must be, or you can have neither
fine wall fruit, nor early crops of garden-plants. If you can have
the slope, such as I have described it to have been at Waverley,
it is easy to make a flat before the face of the wall, on the north
side of the garden : but, to have the V)hole of a garden upon a slope
is by no means desirable ; for, however gentle the slope may be,
the water will run off; and, in certain cases, it is absolutely neces-
sary that the water should not run away ; but have time to soak
gently into the ground. I have had great opportunity of acquiring
knowledge in this respect. Part of my ground at Kensington forms
a very, gentle slope. The soil of this slope is as good, both at top
and bottom, as any ground in the world ; but I have always per-
ceived, that seeds never rise there with the same alacrity and the
same vigour that they do upon the level part, though there the soil
is much inferior. This is particularly the case with regard to
strawberries, which will grow, blow like a garland, and even bear
pretty numerously, on the side of a bank where scarcely any
moisture can lodge ; but which I have never seen produce large
and fme fruit except upon the level. The same may be said of
10 SITUATION, SOIL, [CHAP.
almost every garden plant and tree ; and, therefore, if I could avoid
it, I would always have some part of a garden not upon the slope.
Slopes are excellent for early broccoli, early cabbages, winter
spinage, onions to stand the winter, artichokes to come early, early
peas, early beans, and various other things; but there ought to be
some part of the garden upon a true level ; for, when the month
of June comes, that is the part of the garden which will be
flourishing.
18. As to shelter, hills, buildings, lofty trees, all serve for the
purpose ; but the lofty trees ought not to stand too near. They
ought not to shade by any means ; and none of their leaves ought
to drop into the garden. Leaves from such trees, blown into the
garden by high winds, are merely a temporary inconvenience ; but
shade would do injury, though, perhaps, if not too deep, counter-
balanced by the warmth and the shelter that the trees would afford*
19. Before I quit this subject of Situation, I cannot refrain
from attempting to describe one kitchen-garden in England, to
behold which is well worth the trouble and expense of a long
journey, to any person who has a taste in this way : I mean
that of Mr. Henry Drummond, at Albury, in the county of
Surrey. This garden is, in my opinion, nearly perfection, as far
as relates to situation and form. It is an oblong square \ the
wall on the north side, is close under a hill j that hill is crowned
with trees which do not shade the garden. There is a flat, or
terrace, in the front of this wall. This terrace consists, first of a
border for the fruit-trees to grow in, next of a broad and beau-
tiful gravel walk, then, if I recollect rightly, of a strip of short
grass. About the middle of the length, there is a large basin sup-
plied with water from a spring coming out of the hill, and always
kept full. The terrace is supported, on the south side of it, by
a wall that rises no higher than the top of the earth of the
terrace. Then comes another flat, running all the way along ; this
flat is a broad walk, shaded completely by two rows of yew-trees,
the boughs of which form an arch over it : so that, here, in this
kitchen-garden, there are walks for summer as well as for winter :
on the gravel walk you are in the sun, sheltered from every wind ;
and, in the yew-tree walk, you are completely shaded from the
sun in the hottest day in summer. From the yew-tree walk the
ground slopes gently down towards the brook which runs from
Sheer through Albury, down to Chilworth j where, after sup-
II.] ENCLOSING, LAYING OUT. \\
plying the paper-mills and powder-mills, it falls into the river
Wey. The two end walls of the garden have plantations of trees
at the back of them ; so that, except that here is no ground
except the terrace, which is not upon the slope, this garden, which
is said to have been laid out by Sir Philip Evelyn for some
member of the family of Howard, is everything that one could
wish. The mansion-house stands at a little distance opposite the
garden, on the other side of the brook ; and, though all the grounds
round about are very pretty, this kitchen-garden constitutes the
great beauty of the place. Here, too, though Evelyn might have
revived, this charming spot was chosen, the garden was made, and
the cloister of yew-trees planted, by the monks of the Priorv of
St. Austin, founded here in the reign of Richard I., and the estates
of which Priory were given by the bloody tyrant to Sir Anthony
Brown.
SOIL.
20. The plants and trees which grow in a garden, prefer, like
most others, the best soil that is to be found ; and the best is, good
fat loam at the top, with a bottom that suffers the wet gently to
escape. But we must take that which we happen to have, avoiding, if
we possibly can, a stiff clay or gravel, not only as a top-soil, but
as a bottom-soil also, unless at a very great distance. Oak-trees
love clay, and the finest of that sort of timber grows, on such
land ; but no trees that grow in a garden love clay, and they
are still less fond of gravel, which always burns in summer time,
and which sucks up the manure, and carries it away out of the
reach of the roots of the plants. Chalk, if it be too near, to
the top, is not good ; but it is better than clay or gravel ; and by
the means of trenching, of which I shall presently speak, chalky
soil may make a very good garden ; for chalk never burns in
summer, and is never wet in winter; that is to say, it never causes
stagnant water. It absorbs it, and retains it, until drawn upwards
by the summer sun. And hence it is that the chalky downs are
fresh and green, while even the meadows in the valleys are burned
up so as to be perfectly brown. No tree rejects chalk ; chalk
is not apt to produce canker in trees ; and, upon the whole, it
is not a bad soil even for a garden, while, if it have a tolerable
12 SITUATION, SOIL, [CHAP.
depth of earth on the top of it, it is, taking all things together,
the pasturage, the sound roads, the easy cultivation in all weathers,
the healthiness which it invariably gives to cattle of all sorts, the
very best land in the world for a farm ; and I, who have per-
haps seen as many farms and home-steds as any man in England,
and in as many different situations, never saw such fine, such
beautiful, such generally productive, such neat and really rich
farms, as in countries consisting entirely of chalk, excepting the
mere bottoms of the valleys along which run the brooks and
the rivers, and here, too, are the finest of all the watered meadows
that I ever saw.
21. I am by no means, therefore, afraid of chalk, especially as
houses are seldom built, and kitchen-gardens seldom wanted on
chalk hills. In chalky countries, kitchen-gardens are generally
wanted on the sides of such hills where there is generally consi-
derable depth of soil above the chalk ; in which case there can
seldom be better soil for a kitchen-garden, if the proper prepa-
rations be made ; and of those preparations I am now about
to speak.
22. Having fixed upon the spot for the garden, the next thing
is to prepare the ground. I shall suppose it to be part of a field,
or of a coppice : in the former case, there must be ploughing and
harrowing to destroy the roots of all weeds most effectually : in
the latter, complete grubbing, so as to leave no roots of timber-
trees or underwood in the ground ; and then must come an
operation absolutely indispensable to the making of a good garden ;
that is to say, trenching to the depth of two feet at the least; and,
as asparagus, and some other things, send their roots down to
a much greater depth than two feet, the whole ought to be trenched
to the depth of three feet, with a spit of digging at the bottom
of each trench, which would move the ground to the depth of
three feet nine inches, or thereabouts.
23. According to the common manner of trenching, the top-soil
would be turned down to the bottom of the trench, and the bottom
soil brought up to the top ; so that you have at the top, if the
land be chalky, a bed of sheer chalk ; if clayey, a bed of clay,
and so on ; and, in the very best of land, you bring up to the top,
matter which has never seen the sun, and which, in spite of every-
thing that you can do in the way of tillage as well as in the way
of manure, will require many years before it will become ground
...]
ENCLOSING, LAYING OUT.
13
fit to bear crops in the manner that it ought to bear them. I have
taken away, sometimes, a bank which separated two fields : I
have dug, manured, and done everything in my power to enrich
the land on which the bank stood , but have never, iu any instance,
been able to make it, even at the end of several years, equal to
the land adjoining it. The truth is, this ground had been so long
out of the reach of the influence of the elements, the sun, the
frosts, the snows, the air, the rains and the dews, that it was not
fit for performing that which earth will not perform without the
assistance of these elements.
24. Therefore, in the work of trenching, the top soil must be
kept at the top. This is to be done with the greatest facility
imaginable, and with comparatively very little additional expense.
Having, in The Woodlands, given full directions for the per-
forming of this work, I have here little more to do than to repeat
that which I have said there, accompanying my instructions with
an explanatory plate. This I may lawfully do, it being only pur-
loining from myself; this method never having been pointed out
by any other writer on the subject, as far as I have observed ; nor
have I perceived that even the thought ever entered the mind of
any other man. Yet the reader will perceive, that, without pur-
suing this method, it would be impossible to make a good garden
in some kinds of soil.
25. The piece of ground that I propose to be made into a
garden, will be, from outside to outside, ten rods wide and
fifteen rods long. This piece of ground ought to be marked
into strips or lifts, each a rod wide, in the manner described
below. This division into narrow strips takes place, because the
B
D
H
K
M
0
Q
E
N
\l
14 SITUATION, SOIL, [CHAP.
earth which comes out of the first trench must go to fill up
the last trench ; and, therefore, in this case, there would he
pretty nearly a hundred cart-loads of earth to he carted, or
wheeled, from one end of the piece to the other : whereas, by
proceeding in the way of strips, you fill up the trench with
hardly any wheeling at all. The ground being laid out in strips,
you begin at a, and take off all the top earth of a cross strip two
feet wide ; and you wheel that earth to the end of the further strip
at S. The little cross strip a is marked out by straining a line
across the great strip, and making a chop with the spade. When
you have taken away the top earth of a, mark out the cross strip
by and wheel away its top earth also to the same place as before,
laying this top earth altogether in one round snug heap, just
without the limits of the ground at S. You have now got the top
earth away from the two first trenches a and b. You next take
out the bottom earth of the trench a, down to the depth of three
feet, and you wheel that away and put it into a round and snug
heap, distinct from the other heap, at the end of the further strip
at S. You have now the trench a quite empty down to three feet
deep ; you then move the earth with a spade, or other tool, to the
depth of nine inches at the bottom of the trench a : then you take
the bottom earth of the trench b, and keep putting it into the
trench a, until you have gone to the depth of three feet; then you
dig or move the earth nine inches deep again at the bottom
of the trench b : then you take the top earth from the trench c, and
lay it upon the top of the trench a. The trench b remains empty
all this time, and you have to toss the top earth of c across the
trench b in order to place it upon the top of the trench a. The
trench a is now finished : it has got the top earth of c on its top,
and all its contents have been completely moved to the depth
of three feet nine inches. You next take the bottom earth of c and
turn it into the trench b ; and when you have moved or dug the bot-
tom of c in the same manner as you did that of a and b, you
take the top earth of the trench d and put it upon the top of the
trench b : and thus you go on till you arrive at A. When you
arrive at A, you will find yourself with an empty trench at the end,
and with a trench with no top earth upon it next to that at the end.
You therefore now begin the second strip atC: you take the top earth
of the first two feet wide, and put it upon top of the trench next
to the end one of the last strip : you then take the bottom earth
II.] ENCLOSING, LAYING OUT. 1 •">
of the first two feet wide in this second strip and put it into the
bottom of your lust trench at Aj you then take the top earth of
the second trench at C, and put it on the last trench at A. Thus
the whole of the first strip is completed ; and you have again, as
you had at a and b, an empty trench at the end, and the trench
next to it with the top earth taken off. You then proceed with
the rest of this strip as you did with that of the other, until you
come to B, when you turn in at D, and do just the same as you
did at C. You then go on to E, when you get there you turn in
again at G, and thus you proceed till you come to S, when you
will find yourself with the last trench completely empty, and with
the next to the last wanting the top earth. These are hoth ready
for you. You take the heap of bottom earth, which came out of
a, and put it into your empty trench ; then you take the heap of top
earth, which was wheeled from a and b, and lay it on upon the
two last trenches ; and thus all the ground will have been com-
pletely moved to three feet nine inches deep, every part of it will
have changed its place ; and you will find it to stand a foot or
fifteen inches higher than the ground in the neighbourhood of it.
Great care should be taken to lay the strips out by straight lines.
The best way is to divide each end of the piece into rods by stick-
ing up sticks ; and then to mark out the lines from one end of the
piece to the other. If only very common care be taken, it is next
to impossible not to have straight lines. Equal care should be taken
that the trenches themselves be of equal width, and that the lines
which mark them out be true and parallel ; but this is so easy a
matter, a matter that it would be a shame, indeed, for any one to
pretend difficulty in the performance of it.
26. I have now to speak on the subject of manures as adapted
to a garden. Different plants require different sorts of manure,
and different quantities. It is certainly true that dung is not the
best sort of manure for a garden : it may be mixed with other
matter, and, if very well rotted, and almost in an earthy state, it
mav not be amiss ; but, if otherwise used, it certainly makes the
garden vegetables coarse and gross compared to what they are when
raised with the aid of ashes, lime, chalk, rags, salt, and composts.
Besides, dung creates innumerable weeds : it brings the seeds of
the weeds along with it into the garden, unless it have first been
worked in a hot- bed, the heat of which destroys the vegetative
quality of the seeds.
16 SITUATION, SOIL, [cHAP.
27. A great deal more is done by the fermentation of manures
than people generally imagine : the shovellings of grass and turf
from the sides of roads; weeds or roots of weeds raked off from a
field ; these laid in a great heap and turned frequently during the
year, having ashes (of wood), lime, rags, salt in a small proportion,
mixed with the rest of the heap, make excellent manure. Provision
of manure like this ought to be made, one heap being always ready
to succeed another. As to salt, however, which is now so easy
to be obtained, and which is perhaps the cheapest manure of all,
care must be taken that the proportion of it be not too great.
About thirty bushels, perhaps would be enough for the whole extent
of the garden at one time ; and the best way would be, at the
outset, to put this thirty bushels into a heap of stuff consisting
of about a hundred cart-loads, mix the whole well together by
turning it several times, and manure the ground all over before the
planting or sowing is begun. Afterwards new heaps would be
formed, and the same proportion of salt might be used. Any other
general manuring might not be wanted : the hot-beds would pro-
duce a great deal ; and even with this hot-bed dung, some salt
might be mixed ; not, however, with a view of destroying worms,
as some people imagine it to do; for it will destroy worms only
when it is used in sufficient quantities to destroy plants, which
it will do most effectually and most speedily, if, in its unmixed
state, it come at their roots. I shall, hereafter, have to speak
about manuring for different plants ; and having made these
general observations on the subject, I now proceed to speak of the
form and extent of the garden.
FORM AND EXTENT OF THE GARDEN.
28. It is desirable to have as much wall facing the south as you
possibly can have, without incurring inconveniences which would
attend a long narrow slip. At least, it is desirable to have a
good portion of wall facing in that direction. If the garden be
already formed, you must keep what you have got ; but if you
have to choose, it ought to be more extensive from east to west
than from north to south : an oblong square is the proper form ;
and it very conveniently happens that the proportions ought to be
much about those of one of the sides of this book, when neatly
II.] ENCLOSING, LAYING OUT. 17
bound and lying upon the table, which is five in length, and three
in breadth ; that is to say, a piece of ground to resemble it in form,
would contain five feet in length for everv three feet in breadth. I
am about to recommend a garden to be walled in, in the first
place, and then surrounded with a hedge. The dimensions within
the walls I recommend to be (casting away a trifling fraction) two
hundred and fifteen feet long, and one hundred and thirty-two feet
wide ; that is to say, thirteen rods long, at sixteen feet and a half
to the rod, and eight rods wide, the area being one hundred and
four square rods; sixteen rods short of three quarters of an acre.
29. The walls (of the construction of which I shall speak pre-
sently) would be half thrown away in point of horticultural utility,
unless there were a piece of garden ground all round them on the
outside, and that piece of garden ground protected by an effectual
fence. Of this fence I shall also presently speak ; but, to con-
clude the subject of dimensions, the piece of ground between the
wall and the outer fence, ought to be a clear rod wide, which would
add forty-two rods of ground to the hundred and four enclosed
within the walls, making, in the whole, of garden ground, a hun-
dred and fifty-six square rods, being fourteen square rods short of
a statute acre. I know that some noblemen and gentlemen find
twice or three times this quantity of land insufficient for supplying
their houses, though in each house there is but one family ; but
if these noblemen and gentlemen were first to take a look, at anv
time of the year, at a market garden in the parish of Fulham, and
then go immediately and take a look over their own gardens, they
would clearly perceive the cause of the insufficiency of their own.
In the former, they would see that there was not a single square
yard of ground tenanted by weeds, cabbage-stumps, or plants of
lettuce, and other things, suffered to stand and go uselessly to
seed ; and, in the latter, they would find all these in great abund-
ance, and large spaces of ground left, apparently as if of no use at
all. The quantity of kitchen vegetables which a hundred and forty-
six rods of ground is capable of producing in the course of a year,
would astonish any man not accustomed to observe and to cal-
culate upon the subject. Many a gardener, with a smaller quan-
tity of land, sends a hundred cart-loads of produce to the market
in the course of a year, exclusive of plums, cherries, currants,
gooseberries, raspberries, and strawberries. To speak of cabbages,
for instance, a square rod of ground will contain about a hundred ;
c
18 SITUATION, SOIL, [CHAP.
and when are a hundred cabbages to be eaten in almost any family ?
Six square rods of winter spinage are more than sufficient to afford
a constant supply for even the largest of families. Peas and beans
require room; but they are not long upon the ground, and other
crops are coming on between them. In short, long experience and
observation have convinced me that a large garden is of very little
use ; and that, while it requires a great deal more labour than a
small one to keep it in anything like good order, it is never made
to produce so much. The manure has to be scattered over a larger
space; the idle ground is by no means idle in producing mischief:
the weeds that are suffered to remain on it produce and nourish
and breed up innumerable families of snails and slugs, wood-lice,
grubs, and all those things which destroy crops. The weeds, when
dug in. generate these mischievous vermin, and furnish them with
food at the same time. The grass that is turned in breeds the wire-
worm ; so that the idle ground not only does no good, but produces
a great deal of mischief, while the extent of the garden is really a
valid pretence for the employment of a great number of hands.
ENCLOSING.
SO. Under this head we are first to speak of the walls, which
ought to be twelve feet high, two feet thick to the surface of the
ground, and nine inches from the ground to the top, with a jam
coming out six inches from the wall on the outside ; and these jams
ought not to be more than eight or ten feet apart. This would
give a wall quite smooth in the inside of the garden; and, on the
outside, there would be space for a good large wall-tree between
every two jams. The top, or coping, of the wall, ought to consist
of semicircular bricks, which should be put on in the firmest and
best manner, and the joints well grouted or cemented. When I
come to speak of the manner of preserving the blossoms and young
fruit of wall trees from the effects of frost and other severe
weather, I shall have to say something more about the construction
of a particular part of the wall : at present it will be sufficient to
add, that it ought to be made of good, solid, smoothly-finished
and well-burned bricks ; that the mortar ought to be of the best ;
that the joints ought to be uniform in size and well filled with
mortar : and that the wall ought to be erected, not later than the
I.] ENCLOSING, LAYING OUT. 19
month of June, in order for it to become thoroughly dry in every
part before the arrival of frost. In making the foundation, great
care must be taken to go lower down than the depth of the trench-
ing, in order to come at the solid and immoveable earth.
31. As was observed before, the use of one half of this wall, for
horticultural purposes, would be lost, unless wall-trees could be
placed on both sides of it; and wall-trees cannot be placed on the
outside, with any chance of utility, unless there be an effectual
fence to protect the trees on that wall. I knew an old gentleman,
one of whose garden walls separated the garden from a meadow,
which was unprotected except bv a common hedge. Those per-
sons of the village who were fond of wall-fruit, who had none of
their own, and who were young enough to climb walls, used to
leave him a very undue proportion of his fruit, and that not of the
best quality. He therefore separated a strip of the meadow from
the rest by a little fence, very convenient for getting over ; turned
this strip, which lay along against the wall, into kitchen garden-
ground, planted excellent fruit-trees against the wall, trained them
and cultivated them properly ; and thus, by furnishing his juvenile
neighbours with onions for their bread and cheese, as well as fruit
for their dessert, ever after he kept the produce of the inside of
the garden for himself, generally observing (as he once particu-
larly did to me) that he was not so unreasonable as to expect to
have any of the produce of the exterior garden.
32. But there is no necessity for making these sort of diver-
sions, if you can, with the greatest ease imaginable, effectually
protect the fortress against every species of attack. This pro-
tection is to be obtained by a hedge made of hawthorn, black thorn;
or, still better, with honey locust, the thorns of the latter being just
so many needles of about an inch and a half, or two inches long,
only stouter than a needle and less brittle. The space between the
wall and the hedge ought to be a clear rod, allowing, besides, three
feet for the hedge. This hedge ought to be planted in the following
manner. The plants being first sown in beds, and then put into
a nursery, ought to be taken thence when their stems are about
the thickness of the point of your fore-finger. They ought to be
as equal as possible in point of size ; because, if one be weaker
than the rest, they subdue it ; there comes a low place in the
hedge ; that low place becomes a gap ; and a hedge with a gap in
it, is, in fact, no fence at all, anv more than a wall with an open
c2
20 SITUATION, SOIL, [CHAP.
door in it is a protection to a house. Having got the plants ready ;
or, rather, before they be taken up out of the ground, you prepare
the place to receive them. You make a ditch six feet wide, at the
top, and two and a half wide at the bottom. I suppose the ground
to be trenched to the width of eighteen feet from the wall. You
take all the good earth from the top of the place that is to be the
ditch, and lay it upon the trenched ground to the extent of two
feet wide, which will make a very good and deep bed of earth for
the plants which are to form the hedge to grow in. Then the
ditch ought to be dug out to the depth of three feet, and shovelled
out very clean and smooth at the bottom. This bottom earth of
the ditch must be carried away ; for it would not do to throw it
up into the border. If it be convenient, the slope of the bank
ought to be covered with turf, well beaten on, and in the autumn ;
because, if put on in the spring, the grass would be likely to die.
If not convenient to get turf, this slope ought to be thickly sown
with grass seeds from a hay-loft ; and, in both cases, this slope of
the bank ought to be hung very regularly with dead bushes, fast-
ened to the bank by little pegs. This bank and ditch alone, if
the bushes were well hung and fastened on, would be no bad
protection : few boys, or young fellows, would venture, particularly
by night, to take a jump over a ditch of six feet, with about two
feet of elevation on the bank ; but the hedge, in addition to this
ditch and bank, renders the storming literally impossible, except
with the assistance of facines and scaling ladders, which are muni-
tions that the besiegers of gardens are very seldom provided with.
To return now to the planting of the hedge : I entirely disap-
prove of great numbers of plants employed for this purpose. If
the plants stand too close to each other, they never can be strong :
they never get stout stems : the hedge is weak at bottom ; and
the hedge can never be what it would be if fewer and stronger
plants were put in. The time of planting is any where between
September and April. The plants, when taken up, should have
all their fibres taken from their roots with a sharp knife, and their
main roots shortened to the length of about six inches; then they
should be planted with great care, the earth put in very finely
about the roots, and, every plant fastened well in the ground by
the foot. The earth should be then made smooth after the tread-
ing, and the plants immediately cut down to within a foot of the
ground. The distance that the plants should stand from each other
Hi] J.M l.osiM,, LAVING OUT. 21
ought to be about fifteen inches, and the row of plants ought to
stand at about a foot from the edge of the bank. The plants
should be kept perfectly clear from weeds all the summer, which
is very easily effected by two or three hoeings. If plants be
plentiful, and you desire to have an extraordinarily thick hedge,
put in two rows of plants, one row eighteen inches from the other,
and the plants of one row placed opposite the middle of the intervals
in the other row. The plants will make long and strong shoots
the first summer. The next spring cut them down to within an
inch of the ground. Go over them in June when they will have
made considerable shoots, and cut off all the shoots close to the
stem, except the two strongest of each plant. Let them go on
through another year, and these two shoots will then be about five
feet high. Then, in winter, take one of the shoots of each plant,
and plash it close to the bottom ; that is to say, bend it down
longwise the hedge, and give it a cut on the upper side about two
inches from the stem ; cut off the top of it so as to leave the re-
mainder a foot long ; bend it down to the ground, making it lie as
close as possible to the stems of the neighbouring plant, and fasten
it to the ground with two pegs. When you have done this all the
way along, there will be one splash for every interval between the
stems of the plants. When this is done, cut down the upright
shoots, which you have not plashed down, to within four inches of
the bottom j or, rather, to within an inch or so of that part of the
stem out of which the plashed shoot issues. The next October,
that is to say, at the end of the fourth summer, you will have a
complete, efficient, and beautiful fence. This fence will want
topping and clipping, in order to keep it of uniform height, and
smooth on the sides. You may let it go to what height you
please ; but, in order to have a hedge thick at the bottom, you
must trim the hedge in such a way as for the outsides of the bottom
of it not to be dripped by the upper parts of the hedge. This is a
very important matter ; for, if the bottom of the hedge be hol-
low, holes are easily made in it, and it soon becomes no fence
at all.
33. If the hedge be made of honey locusts, two rows of plants
are better than one, the distances being the same as before-men-
tioned. These do not do so well for plashing as the hawthorn or
black thorn ; but they send out numerous si.de-shoots, and these
very strong. These locusts should not be cut down till the end of
22 SITUATION, SOIL, [cHAP.
the autumn after planting j or they may be cut down the next
spring, and close to the ground. Each will then send up three or
four stout shoots. When these have grown through the summer,
take out any little weak shoots, close to the stem, and cut down
the stout ones within three or four inches of the ground. Out of
these stems will come such quantities of shoots, that the fence will
be complete in a very short time, and will only want trimming
and clipping. The whole of the space between the two rows will
be filled up by the side shoots ; and the hedge will be quite im-
possible by any animal bigger, at any rate, than a rat or a cat ;
and, besides all the rest, the foliage is so very fine, that even as an
ornament, it would be desirable to have it as a hedge.
34. With regard to the height of this hedge, it might be six or
seven feet ; but not higher ; for, if too high, it would keep the sun
from part of the wall on the south side of the garden. If higher,
it would give more shelter, indeed ; but then this benefit would
be over-balanced by the injury done in the way of shade. By the
means of a hedge of this sort, you not only secure the use of the
outsides of your walls ; but you obtain security for the produce
of the inside. For gardeners may scold as long and as vehe-
mently as they please, and law-makers may enact as long as they
please, mankind will never look upon taking fruit in an orchard,
or a garden, as felony, nor even as a serious trespass. Besides,
there are such things as boys, and every considerate man will recol-
lect, that he himself was once a boy. So that, if you have a mind
to have for your own exclusive use what you grow in your garden,
you must do one of two things ; resort to terrors and punishments,
that will make you detested by your neighbours, or provide an
insurmountable fence. This prevents temptation, in all cases dan-
gerous, and particularly in that of forbidden fruit. Resolve,
therefore, to share the produce of your garden with the boys of
the whole neighbourhood ; or, to keep it for your own use bv ;i
fence that they cannot get through, over, or under. Six feet is no
great height; but in the way of fence, four feet of good thorn-
hedge will keep the boldest boy from trees loaded with fine ripe
perches ; and, if it will do that, nothing further need be said in its
praise ! The height is nothing ; but, unless the assailant have
wings, he must be content with feasting his eyes ; for, if he attempt
to climb, he receives the penalty upon the spot ; and he retreats
as the fox did from the grapes, only with pain of body in addition
II.] ENCLOSING, LAYING OUT. 23
to tli nt of a disappointed longing. I really (recollecting former
times) feel some remorse in thus plotting against the poor fellows ;
hut the worst of it is, they will not he content with fair play : they
will have the earliest in the season, and the best, as long as the
season lasts ; and, therefore, I must, however reluctantly, shut
them out altogether.
85. By the time that the wall-trees begin to produce any thing
of I crop, the hedge will become an effectual fence : the latter
will go on providing protection as the trees go on in making
provision for fruit. The ditch and the bank should be attended
to during this time. If the earth moulder down, it should be put
up again : any holes or washings that appear in the bank should
be regularly stopped, and the earth carefully replaced every au-
tumn : the prunings and clippings should be regularly and carefully
performed, once every winter, and once every summer, about the
middle of the month of July. This summer clipping must be
earlier or later, according to the season, or to the climate : but it
should take place just before the starting of the Midsummer shoot.
All trees shoot twice in the year : the shoot that comes out in
the spring ends about Midsummer, and then begins another shoot
that comes out of the end of it ; which is about one-third and
sometimes about one-half, smaller than the spring shoot, and the
pruning or clipping should take place just before this new shoot
comes out: this operation causes many new and small shoots to
come forth, and gives the hedge a very beautiful appearance ; and
also makes it much thicker than it otherwise would be. The
seed of the black thorn is a little sloe, and not easily to be ob-
tained in any quantity : its leaf is not so beautiful as that of the
hawthorn ; but its wood stronger, and its thorns a great deal more
formidable. A holly hedge only requires more patience ; and we
should recollect that it is evergreen : and as effectual, in a fence,
as either of our thorns ; for its leaves are so full of sharp prickles,
that no boy will face a holly hedge of any degree of thickness. To
have such a hedge, you must gather the berries in autumn, keep
them in damp sand for a year ; then sow them in November, and,
when they come up in the spring, keep the bed carefully weeded,
not only then, but all through the summer; let them stand in this
bed another summer; then transplant them in rows in a nursery
of rich ground ; there let them stand for two or three years; thpn
plant them for the hedge at the same distances, and in the same
24 SITUATION, SOIL, [CHAI\
manner, as directed for the honey locusts ; then, when they have
stood a year thus, cut them down nearly close to the ground, which
will bring three or four shoots out of each plant ; and, with a little
topping and side-pruning, carefully performed, they will, in about
five years after being planted, form a very beautiful and effectual
fence. Neither of the thorns is raised much more quickly ; and
certainly there is no comparison for such a purpose between an
evergreen and a deciduous tree. And, there is this further advan-
tage with regard to the holly, that it will flourish in any soil, from
the drvest and most arid bank, to the wettest and sourest clay j
and as to duration, as a plant, nothing but the yew-tree equals
the holly.
LAYING-OUT.
35. Having now given instructions relative to the Situation, the
Soil, Form, and Extent, and the Enclosing of the garden^ there re-
mains to speak, in this Chapter, only of the laying of it out into
plats, borders, paths, and walks. A judicious distribution of the
ground is a great matter ; for, if any part of it be .awkward to get
at, great additional labour is occasioned j and, if there be not the
proper quantity of paths and walks, there must be great tramp-
ling of the ground, and very great inconveniences of various sorts.
The outer garden, that is to say, the garden between the hedge and
the wall, will not require much attention in the making of paths :
the whole of it will be land pretty constantly under cultivation, to
within about four or five feet of the wall ; and a path there, that
is to say, at that distance from the wall, trodden out upon the
common ground, and just sufficient to pass along for the purpose
of managing the trees which are against the wall, will be sufficient.
36. But, with regard to the garden itself, where the width is
considerable, great care must be taken that every part of the ground
can be come at without inconvenience ; that there be borders suf-
ficiently wide for the roots of the wall-trees to extend themselves
in; and that the several plats of ground be easily come at for the
purpose of manuring, and for all other purposes. I subjoin a plan,
which I deem the most proper for a garden of the extent that I
have recommended. I shall first give the plan on the opposite
page ; and, when I have subjoined the explanations of the plan, I
shall proceed to make some remarks on it.
II.] ENCLOSING, LAYING OUT. 25
EXPLANATIONS OF THE PLAN.
1. The whole length, from outside to outside, from East to West, is '247$ feet, or
15 rod.
2. The whole width, from North, to South, is 165 feet, or 10 rod.
3. The outside line represents the place for the hedge.
4. The double line represents the place for the wall.
5. The walks are described by dotting, and all, except the middle walk, are four
feet wide.
6. The walk which goes all along the garden from East to West is six feet wide.
7. a a door-way through the hedge, 3 feet wide.
8.6 a door-way in the wall, 3 feet wide, and 4 feet from the corner of the wall.
9. c, c, c, c, is the outer garden, a clear rod wide, between the wall and the hedge,
10. d is the Hot-bed ground, 58§, feet from East to West, and 63 feet from
North to South.
11. e e e is a border, 10 feet wide, under the inside of the wall.
12. /is a plat of ground, 50$feet from East to West, and 49 feet from North to
South.
13. g, h, i, k, are plats of ground, each of which has 67 feet from East to West,
and 49 feet from North to South.
14. m is a door-way in the wall, 3 feet wide, and 4 feet from the corner of the
wall.
15. nis a border, 4 feet under the inside of the West wall.
16. p is a door-way in the Western hedge of the Hot-bed-ground.
17. q is a door-way in the Southern hedge of the Hot-bed ground.
18. r the tool house.
19. The letter N points out the North side of the garden ; the letter E the
East side, and the other letters the South and the West sides.
38. It will be seen, that I make but one entrance into the gar-
den, as at a ; because this entrance, which is a door- way in a hedge,
is a somewhat difficult affair : hedges cannot be joined to wood
work, as brick work can. There must be posts and a door-frame :
and, if great pains be not taken, there will soon be a gap where
these join the hedge. This will be the weak part of the fortifi-
cation. There must be a bridge over the ditch ; and that which
serves the garrison equally serves the besieger ; therefore, this
door ought to be well guarded on the top and on the sides by stout
pieces of wood projecting in every direction from the top and sides
of the door, and well guarded with tenter-hooks. Prevention is bet-
ter than cure : u lead us not into temptation," is the most sensible
of all possible prayers : you inflict no hardship by removing
temptation ; but you inflict great hardship in the pursuit of com-
pensation or punishment : let the whole neighbourhood be con-
vinced that forcible entry into the garden is not to be accomplished
without infinite difficulty: and that is a great deal better than all
the steel-traps, spring-guns, and penal laws in the world. It is
better to have sentry-boxes and sentinels in them than to resort to
26 SITUATION, SOIL, [CHAP.
the steel-trap and spring-gun system ; and, for my own part, mor-
tified as I should be at spoliations committed in the garden, T
would submit to them, and even to the destruction of the garden
itself, rather than disgrace my premises by such terrific threats.
39. The door-way at a lets you into a short path to another
door-way in the wall at b. Through these door-ways the materials
naturally go for the making of hot-beds ; and, therefore, the hot-
bed ground, d, is the first part of the walled garden into which
you enter. I will, before I go further, give a particular description
of this hot-bed ground, which is by no means an unimportant part
of the concern. It is fifty-eight feet and a half from east to west,
and sixty-three feet from north to south. A door goes out of it
at q, another door at d. These door-ways lead to the several parts
of the garden, and are convenient outlets for all purposes, whatso-
ever. There is, you will perceive, the wall on the north side of this
hot-bed ground, and the wall on the west side. The other two
sides should be bounded by a hedge ; and that hedge should be of
yew. The fences to hot-bed grounds are frequently made of reed,
which are very good for the purpose of shelter ; but which are dead-
looking things at the best. The fences to such places are some-
times made of hornbeam ; but this sort of hedge loses its leaves in
the winter, and is of little use precisely at the season when it is
most wanted. The yew is evergreen. It is by no means difficult
to make grow ; it does not grow slowly ; it is clipped into any
form that vou please ; regularly clipped, it remains in the same
form for ever ; it is as close at the bottom as in the middle of its
height; it has all the regularity of a wall itself; and, in such a
case, it is a great deal better than a wall, because it occasions no
recoiling or reverberation of the wind. The height of the hedge
should not much exceed six feet, for then it would shade part of
the beds ; and it is hardly necessary to say, that it should be kept
regularly clipped twice in the year, in the same manner as is di-
rected for the hawthorn hedge. There should not only be door-
ways at_/> and q, but doors also ; otherwise the wind would sweep
in, and, in part, defeat the object of the hedge. Hardly any family
can want a greater space than this for the raising of things for
which hot-beds are necessary ; and, if the space were found to be
larger than was wanted, this would be a very good place for the de-
positing of a heap of compost, or any other thing which is unsightly,
ami which, if not somewhat hidden, would disfigure the garden.
II.] ENCLOSING, LAYING OUT. 27
40. The borders e are, as has been seen in the explanations, ten
feet will e ; and the earth in them ought to have a little declivity
from the wall : it may be very trilling, but it ought to be a little.
As to the plats f, g, hy i, k, they are for the growth of garden-
plants in general ; and the parts of them best suited for different
plants at different seasons of the year, will be spoken of under the
heads of the particular plants. The paths and walks ought to be
of gravel, if possible; for, whatever expense this may be attended
with in certain cases, there are hardly any other means of having
dry paths and walks in winter. Grass is very bad, for it must not
only be walked upon, but frequently wheeled upon with barrows
heavily laden, and especially in winter-time; and this soon makes
them a mass of dirt and of ugliness. But, you cannot have gravel-
walks or paths, to be kept in any thing like order, uidess you make
them well in the first place, and protect them against the falling
down of earth upon them for ever afterwards. Therefore, when you
have laid out the garden by lines and stumps, the place or places,
for the walks and paths, should be dug out to the depth of all the
top-soil, which ought to be thrown over the adjoining ground on
both sides, and made perfectly level at the bottom. Then there
should be a bed of brick-bats, or of large flint, or of other stones ;
and upon the top of that bed, about six inches of clean gravel.
41. The next thing is to make efficient provision for preventing
the earth from the borders and plats, which ought to be about four
inches higher than the tops of the walks, from tumbling into the
walks when digging, hoeing, and other operations take place ; but
especially digging; for it is impossible to dig the ground close to
a walk which has not a sufficient protection, without bringing dirt
upon the walk : all the shovelling in the world will not get it off
again clean, unless you go down so deep as to take up part of the
gravel with the dirt; so that, your walk must soon become a dirty-
looking affair, in which weeds and grass will be everlastingly com-
ing: or you must take away, little by little, the gravel, by shovelling,
till you have flung it pretty nearly all upon the borders and flats,
and thereby not only destroyed your walk, but injured your cultiva-
ted land. To prevent these very great troubles and injuries, you
must resolve to have an efficient protection for the walk ; and this, I
venture to assert, is to be obtained by no other means than by the
use of box. Many contrivances have been resorted to for the
purpose of avoiding this pretty little tree, which, like all other
2S SITUATION, SOIL, [fJHAP.
really valuable things, requires some little time ; some little pa-
tience, and great attention, after you have got it. In the end, in-
deed, it is a great deal cheaper than any thing else ; but it requires
some attention and patience at first, and regular clipping every year
twice. I have seen, and have had, as an edging (which ramparts of
this sort are called), a little flowering plant called thrift: I have
seen strawberries thickly planted for this purpose : I have seen
daisies, and various other things, made use of as edgings : but, all
these herbaceous things ramble very quickly over the ground;
extend their creepers over the walk, as well as over the ad-
joining ground ; and, instead of being content to occupy the space
of three inches wide, to which it is vainly hoped their moderation
will confine them, they encroach to the extent of a foot the
first summer ; and, if left alone for only a couple of years, they
will cover the whole of a walk six feet wide, harbouring all sorts
of reptiles, making the walk pretty nearly as dirty as if it did
not consist of gravel. I have sometimes seen narrow edgings of
grass, which, perhaps, are the worst of all. Make such an edging,
of four inches wide, in the autumn, and it will be sixteen inches
wide before the next autumn, unless you pare down the edges of
it three or four times. This must be done by a line ; and even
then, some dirt must be cut from the edging, to come into the
walk : this is, in fact, a rampart of dirt itself. It must be mowed
not less than ten times during the summer, or it is ugly beyond
description ; besides bringing you an abundant crop of seeds to
be scattered over the walk, and over the adjoining ground. Of
all edgings, therefore, this is the least efficient for the purpose,
and by far the most expensive.
42. The box is at once the most efficient of all possible
things, and the prettiest plant that can possibly be conceived :
the colour of its leaf; the form of its leaf; its docility as to
height, width, and shape ; the compactness of its little branches ;
its great durability as a plant ; its thriving in all sorts of soils,
and in all sorts of aspects; its freshness under the hottest sun,
and its defiance of all shade and all drip : these are beauties
and qualities, which, for ages upon ages, have marked it out as
the chosen plant for this very important purpose.
43. The box, to all its other excellent qualities, adds that of
facility of propagation. You take up the plants, when they are
from three to six inches high, when they have great numbers of
II.] KNCLOSING, LAYING OUT. 29
shoots coming from the same stem ; you strip these shoots off
put them into the ground, to about the depth of two inches, or a
little more; fasten them well there, first with the hand, and then
with the foot ; clip them along at the top to within about two
inches of the ground, and you have a box edging at once. You
must, indeed, purchase the plants, if you have not taken care to
raise them before-hand ; and, as to thrift, strawberries, daisies,
or grass edgings, there are generally cart-loads of them to be
thrown away, or to be dug from a common. I should suppose,
however, that ten pounds' worth of box, bought at the nurseries,
would be sufficient for the whole garden ; and, then, with com-
mon care, you have neat and efficient edgings for a life -time.
44. To plant the box, some care must be taken. The edging
ought to be planted as soon as the gravel walks are formed. The
box ought to be placed perpendicularly, and in a very straight
line, close to the gravel ; and with no earth at all between it and
the gravel. It ought to stand, when planted and cut off, about
four inches high ; and the earth in the borders or plats ought to
be pushed back a little, and kept back for the first year, to pre-
vent it from being washed back over the walks. When the edging
arrive at its proper height, it will stand about seven inches high,
on the gravel side, and will be about three inches higher than the
earth in the border, and will act like a little wall to keep the
earth out of the walks ; which, to say nothing of the difference
in the look, it will do, as effectually as brick, or boards, or any
thing else, however solid. The edging ought to be clipped in
the winter, or very early in the spring, on both the sides and at
top j a line ought to be used to regulate the movements of the
sheers ; it ought to be clipped again, in the same manner, just
about Midsummer; and, if there be a more neat and beautiful
thing than this in the world, all that I can say, is, that I never saw
that thing.
45. There is yet one thing to notice in this laying-out of the
garden ; namely, that there must be a shed to serve as a place for
depositing tools, flower-pots, and the like ; and also, for the gar-
deners to retire to in case of rain, and to do works there when
they cannot do work out of doors. This is a very necessary part
of the garden premises, and ought to be sufficiently spacious not
only for the purposes just mentioned, but for the hanging up of
seeds to dry, and for various other purposes. This shed ought
30 SITUATION, SOIL, [CHAP.
to stand also as near to the hot-bed ground as convenient, and yet
it is too dissightly to be in the inside of the garden. A shed about
forty feet long, and about seven feet wide, might suffice for this
purpose ; and it might stand very conveniently, as at r in the
outer garden, on the east side of the entrance at a, the back of
the building being high enough to allow the eaves of the roof to
be six feet from the ground ; and the back being towards the
hedge, and not towards the wall. As to water, I have not pointed
out any particular place in the garden for a well or other means
of obtaining water. It will be seen, by-and-by, that I am of
opinion that a great deal of time and labour bestowed upon
watering are, in general, so much time and labour thrown away,
and to effect injury instead of good. Nevertheless, there are many
cases in which watering by hand is absolutely necessary : in hot-
beds, for instance; in the case of plants in pots; in the case of
things which can be shaded during the day; in the case of cauli-
flowers, which grow so much larger and finer when dishes are made
round them and plenty of water given. Therefore, there must be
water used in a garden of this extent ; and to bring it from any
considerable distance would be a thing extremely inconvenient and
attended with great expense. If running water can be brought
through a part of the garden, that is the desirable thing ; and,
when we see the great number of situations where this might be
done at a mere trifling expense, we are astonished at the small
number of instances in which it has ever been attempted. There
is scarcely an instance, where we find a mansion-house of any
considerable size, where a river, a brook, or a spring, might not
be made to furnish a run of water for the garden. Above
ground, or under ground, until it came to the wall, where an
arch and a grating might be made to let it in, a channel to con-
duct it across, and another arch and grating to let it out again.
Running water, besides the prettiness of it, would give banks or
edges for the growth of several things which delight in it : straw-
berries, raspberries, quince- trees, and almost every sort of tree.
But, supposing it to be impossible to have the water in this way,
the usual resource of a well must be resorted to. From this well,
the water would be raised by a pump pouring the water into a
large cistern, made of brick and well cemented, the walls rising
about two feet above the ground, which cistern should be kept
always pretty nearly full, in order for the water to get softened
II.] ENCLOSING, LAYING OUT. 31
by the air, and to be more fit for tbe uses of tbe garden. Tbere
will be plenty of room for this pump and cistern in the hot -bed
ground, at the south-east corner ; and, from this spot, it could
be carried or wheeled to all parts of the garden. No great pains
need be taken with regard to the making of the cistern, so that
it were well cemented : the brick-work should be nine inches
thick, and the form should be circular, otherwise the sides might
fall in.
46. In conclusion of these instructions as to the laying-out of
the garden, I ought to observe that the narrow border at n, which
is four feet wide between the wall and the path, is necessary, because
the path is to be at four feet distance from the wall, in order that
the door-way in the wall on the south side may not be close to the
corner, which would lessen the strength of the wall. In the work
of laying-out, great care ought to be taken with regard to straight-
ness and distances, and particularly as to the squareness of every
part. To make lines perpendicular and perfectly so, is, indeed, no
difficult matter, when one knows how to do it ; but one must know
how to do it, before one can do it all. If the gardener understand
this much of geometry, he will do it without any difficulty ; but, if
he only pretend to understand the matter, and begin to walk back-
ward and forward, stretching out lines and cocking his eye, make no
bones with him ; send for a bricklayer, and see the stumps driven
into the ground yourself. The four outside lines being laid down
with perfect truth, it must be a bungling fellow, indeed, that cannot
do the rest ; but if they be only a little askew, you have a botch in
your eye for the rest of your life, and a botch of your own making
too. Gardeners seldom want for confidence in their own abilities;
and, in many cases, it recmires time and some experience of their
doings, to ascertain whether they know their business or do not;
especially when in pretensions they are so bold, and the result is at
a considerable distance, and clouded with so many intervening cir-
cumstances; but this affair of raising perpendiculars upon a given
line, is a thing settled in a moment: you have nothing to do but to
say to the gardener, " Come, let us see how you do it." He has
but one way in which he can do it ; and, if he do not immediately
begin to work in that way, pack him off to get a bricklayer, even a
botch in which trade will perform the work to the truth of a hair.
32 HOT-BEDS. [CHAP.
CHAPTER III.
On the making and managing of Hot-beds and Green-houses.
47. I observed before, that it did not accord with my plan to
treat of Hot-houses, which, as I then observed, was a branch wholly
distinct from gardening in general, and applicable to the circum-
stances of comparatively very few persons; and that, therefore, to
enter on such a treatise, would be of little use to the public in ge-
neral, while it would injuriously augment the bulk of my work.
Hot-beds are, however, of a different character : they may be made
an amusement, and are even things of real utility, to a very con-
siderable number of persons : to all, in short, who have gardens,
and who have the stable-dung of two or three horses, or of even one
horse, at their command, or who can procure such materials (as is
the case in the neighbourhood of great towns), at a reasonable rate.
A green-house, upon a small scale, or, adapted to the particular
circumstances of the proprietor, is within the reach of a very con-
siderable part of the community ; and, therefore, without, how-
ever, considering it as an essential object, or one worthy of very
great attention, I shall give my opinions upon that species of gar-
dening also.
48. Hot-beds are used either for raising such things as are not
to be raised during the winter or the spring without such assist-
ance, or for the raising of such things as are not to be had at all
in our climate, without artificial heat of some kind. Before we
speak of the form and dimensions of a hot-bed, it will be best,
perhaps, to describe the frame, which is to go upon it ; because
the reasons for the directions for the making of the bed will then
the more manifestly appear. A frame consists of four pieces of
wood ; and, let us suppose it to be twelve feet long, and four feet
wide. Frames are sometimes of greater and sometimes of less dimen-
sions; but for the sake of illustration, let us take a frame of this
size. There must be one board or two boards joined together, to
make the back, twelve feet in length, and eighteen inches wide;
one board to make the front, twelve feet in length and nine inches
wide. One board at each end to be joined on to the ends of the
front and the back ; eighteen inches at the back, and nine inches
Ill,] AND liKIiEN-HOl'SKs. ."*3
at the front. These boards being well dove-tailed together at
the four corners, and being about two inches thick, form the frame-
Upon this frame, glazed sashes are put, which are called lights,
and which rest upon the back and front and ends of the frame, and
also upon bars put across and fastened into the sides of the frame,
in such a way as to form resting-places for the sides of the lights.
This is quite enough of description ; because the carpenters know
how to make these tilings ; and all that I have to do in this place,
is, so to designate them that the reader may know what I am
talking about.
49. Having the intention to make a hot-bed, you must first see
that you have a sufficiency of materials. You take the stable dung,
carry it into the hot- bed ground (letter d in the plan of the gar-
den), and there put it into a conical heap. If you have not enough
of dung from the stable-door, some from cow-stalls, sheep-yards,
and even long stuff from pig-beds or pig-styes, half-stained litter ;
or anything of a grassy kind, and not entirely dry, will lend you
assistance ; but, let it be understood, that the best of all possible
materials for the making of hot-beds is dung from the stable of
corn-fed horses ; and the next best comes from a sheep-yard, or
from stalls where ewes and sucking lambs have been kept. Wheat-
straw is by far the best straw to have been used as litter, when the
dung is wanted for hot-beds. Bearing in mind that this is the
best sort of materials, you must take what you have; and, if it he
of an inferior quality, there must, at any rate, be a greater quan-
tity of it. Having collected your materials together in the hot-bed
ground, you next shake them up well together into a heap, in a
flattish conical form. It is not sufficient merely to put the dung
up together in this form : it must be taken a prongful at a time,
and shaken entirely straw from straw, and mixed, long with short,
duly and truly through every part of the heap, from the bottom
to the top. When thus shaken up, the short stuff on the ground
where the dung was tossed down out of the wheelbarrow, ought
to be shovelled up very clean, and flung over the heap. If the
dung be good, you will see it begin to smoke the next day. It
should lie only two days and a half, or three days, before it be
moved again. It should now be turned over very truly, well sha-
ken to pieces again, and another conical heap formed of it, care
being taken to put the outsides of the first heap towards the inside
of the second heap. In two or three days more, it will have
l)
34 HOT-BEDS [CHAP.
heated again sufficiently ; and then it should he turned once more,
especially if there he a great proportion of long litter in it. If the
dung be very dry, and the weather be dry also, and especially if
it have a large portion of long littery stuff in it, it should be
watered with a watering-pot, when it is first mixed up, a watering
being given all over the heap at every foot of height that the heap
rises to. This is necessary to cause that fermentation without
which there cannot be a hot-bed ; but, generally speaking, this is
not necessary, for dung is seldom flung out with so large a por-
tion of clean straw, as to prevent it from heating when thrown up
in a heap.
50. It is as well to consider it to be a general rule, scarcely
ever to be departed from, that the dung should ferment three seve-
ral times during the space of nine days, before it be put into a hot-
bed. Unless this be the case, the heat of the bed (unless the dung
be very short at the beginning) will not be lasting, and will never
be regular ; nor will the bed be solid and uniform. It will sink
more in some places than in others, and will be hotter in some
places than in others ; therefore, it is useless to be impatient, since
the thing cannot be done well without this previous preparation.
51. The dung being duly prepared, you make the bed in the fol-
lowing manner, having first made the ground on which it is to
stand perfectly level. If the general surface of the ground round
about be on the slope, you must take care so to change the situa-
tion of that part of the ground on which the bed is to stand, as to
make that part perfectly level. It is not sufficient that you have
the top of the bed level. The bottom must be level also, or else
the sinking on one side or at one end, will be greater than on the
other side, or at the other end ; the frame will stand unevenly ; the
slope of the lights will be too steep, or not steep enough ; the bed
will sometimes crack ; the water will run off and not sink into the
earth ; and, in short, without a perfect level whereon to place the
bed, the inconveniences are endless.
52. Having got the level spot, you are to make a bed as nearly
as possible of the dimensions of the frame ; and the best pos-
sible way is to take the frame itself, put it upon the ground
where you intend the bed shall stand, put up a straight piece
of wood on the outside of each corner of the frame, while it is
standing upon the ground ; then take the frame away ; then put
a thin board edgeways upon the ground on the back, and on the
IH.l AND GREBN-HOUSKs. 35
front, and at the two ends, which hoard ought to come on the ont-
sides of the four stakes, and to he held up by four pegs. You have
then a true guide for making the bottom of the bed ; and you be-
gin hv putting a little of the longest of the dung just at the bottom.
Then vou go on shaking the dung into this sort of box, dividing
straw from straw, and mixing long and short duly together, in the
same manner as was before directed in the case of the conical heaps*
and taking care to keep beating the dung down with the prong in
everv part of the bed. When you have shaken on dung to the
thickness of four or five inches, beat all over again, and so on
at every four or five inches deep, until the work be finished.
When you get to the top of the boards, you will proceed very well
without any ; but you must be very careful to keep the outsides and
ends perfectly upright ; for this purpose, great care must be taken
that the stakes at the four corners of the bed be placed perpendicu-
larly. Strain the line now-and-then from stake to stake, and that
will be your guide. Particular care must be taken to keep the
edges of the bed well-beaten as you proceed ; for if you fail to
do this they will sink more than the middle will sink, and then
there will be a crack in the earth in the middle of the bed. As
you proceed, the perpendicular sides and ends ought to be well
beaten also ; and, when the work is finished, it ought to be a
building as smooth and as upright as a wall, being perfectly level
at the top, and, of course, of uniform height in all its parts.
53. When the bed is completed, put on the frame immediately.
If the foregoing instructions have been observed, the bed will be
about an inch longer and an inch wider than the frame. It should
not be more, on any account; especially if it be intended to re-
ceive those linings of which I shall have to speak hereafter. After
putting on the frame, put on the lights ; and, as you will not push
the lights down in order to give air, you will find that the heat of
the bed will begin to rise in the course of twelve hours, or there-
abouts. As soon as the heat begins to rise, there should be some
air given to the bed by pushing the lights, or some of them, down
four or five inches from the back, or drawing them up four or five
inches from the front ; for stench is not good whether before or
after plants be put into the bed. In about three days, the bed
will be in full heat. Some persons recommend to put a sharp-
pointed stick down a foot, or a loot and a half, into the bed, to as-
certain the degree of the heat. Your finger is a great deal better than
d2
36 HOT-BEDS [CHAP.
a stick : whatever heat there is must discover itself at the top of the
bed, and there it is that your finger, well poked down into the centre
of the bed, will enable you to judge of this matter a great deal bet-
ter than anything else. It is a very delicate matter : it is one of the
things that demands the greatest possible attention ; for the heat
of dung, though it will not prohably come to a blaze, in any case,
as a hay-rick sometimes will, it will burn as completely as fire ;
and, if the earth be put on too soon, it will burn the earth into a
sort of cinder, in which nothing will ever grow until that earth has
been for some time exposed to the atmosphere. You must therefore
be very careful to ascertain that the burning powers of the bed are
passed, before you put on the earth. The rule for arriving at a
certainty of this knowledge is this : the next morning after you
have made the bed, poke your fore-finger well down into the
centre of the top of it ; and continue to do the same every morn-
ing and every evening, or more frequently. You will find the heat
increase, till (if the bed be a strong one) the heat be too great for
you to endure your finger in it for a moment : soon after this, you
will find the heat begin to decline ; and, as soon as you can bear
your finger in it without any inconvenience, you may put on the
earth all over the bed to about six inches depth, which earth ought
not to be as dry as dust; but ought, at the same time, not to
be wet.
54. Thus is the bed ready for the receiving of seeds or plants :
thus is the hot-bed made : these are the general instructions for
the making of hot-beds, which are to be of different heights, of
different strength, and managed subsequently in a different man-
ner, according with the nature of the different plants to be culti-
vated in them, and according to the season of the vear, when the
sowing, planting, and cultivation, are to take place. Cucumbers
and melons are, in England, the principal things for the rearing of
which hot-beds are usually made : there are, however, several other
things which are forced forward by the means of hot-beds ; and, in
the treating of cucumbers and melons, and of those other sorts of
garden plants which are raised in hot-beds, I shall, under the
names of these several plant?, in the alphabetical list, give direction
for the management of the hot-beds in which they are placed. A
hot-bed for the purpose of getting early radishes, is a very different
thing from a hot-bed adapted to the raising of melons and cucum-
bers; and, therefore, no general directions for the management of
1 1 I.J AND GRB8N-HOUSKS. 37
the beds can be complete : the heat which is absolutely necessary
to bring cucumbers to perfection, would totally destroy radish
plants, or, at least, prevent them from ever producing a radish fit
to be eaten ; but, as to the manner of making beds, it is the same
in all cases; and of that manner I think I have here given direc-
tions sufficient for any person, even though he had never seen a
hot-bed in his life. I will just add, that the quantity of mate-
rials may be augmented by using a great plenty of straw as litter,
instead of being sparing of straw ; and that, if you have the
making of hot-beds in your eve, it is good, during the fall and the
early part of the winter, while the materials are creating, to let
the dung from the stable be flung rather widely about ; and not
into heaps, in which it would heat, and exhaust itself beforehand.
55. As to the making of green-houses, I shall think df nothing
more than a place to preserve tender plants from the frost in the
winter, and to have hardy flowers during a season of the year when
there are no flowers abroad. It is necessary, in order to make a
green -house an agreeable thing, that it should be very near to the
dwelling-house. It is intended for the pleasure, for the rational
amusement and occupation, of persons who would otherwise be
employed in things irrational ; if not in things mischievous. To
have it at a distance from the house would be to render it nearly
useless ; for, to take a pretty long tramp in the dirt or wet, or
snow, to get at a sight of the plants, would be, nine times out of
ten, not performed ; and the pain would, in most instances, ex-
ceed the pleasure. A green-house should, therefore, be erected
against the dwelling-house. The south side of the house would
be the best for the green-house ; but any aspect, to the south of
due east and due west may do tolerably well ; and a door into it,
and a window, or windows looking into it, from any room of the
house in which people frequently sit, makes the thing extremely
beautiful and agreeable. It must be glass on the top, at the end
most distant from the house, and in the front from about three
feet high. There should be an outer door for the ingress and
egress of the gardener, and a little flue running round for the pur-
pose of obtaining heat sufficient for the keeping of a heat to between
forty and fifty degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer. Stages,
shelves, and other things necessary for arranging the plants upon,
would be erected according to the taste of the owner, and the
purposes in view. Besides the plants usually kept in green-houses,
38 HOT-BEDS [CHAP.
such as geraniums, heaths, and the like, I should choose to have
bulbous-rooted plants of various sorts, even the most common, not
excluding snow-drops and crocuses. Primroses and violets (the
common single sorts, for the others have no smell), cowslips and
daisies j some dwarf roses ; and thus a very beautiful flower-
garden would be to be seen in the month of February, or still
more early. Green-house plants are always set out of doors in the
summer, when they are generally very much eclipsed in beauty by
plants of a hardy and more vigorous description. If there be no
green-house, these plants are taken into the house, shut up in a
small space, very frequently in the shade, and always from strong
light, especially early in the morning ; which greatly injures, and,
sometimes, totally destroys, them ; besides, they really give no
pleasure, except in winter ; for, as was observed before, after the
month of May comes, they are far surpassed in beauty by the
shrubberies and the parterre.
56. Nor is such a place without its real use, for few persons
will deny that fruit is of use; none will deny that fine grapes are
amongst the best of fruit ; we all know that these are not to be
had in England, in the general run of years, without the assistance
of glass ; and the green-house, in which the shade of the grapes
would do no injury to the plants, because these would be out in
the open air, except at the time when there would be little of leaf
upon the vines, is as complete a thing for a grapery as if made for
that sole purpose ; for, if the heat of from forty to fifty degrees
would bring the vines to bear at a time, or, rather, to send out
their leaves at a time inconvenient for the plants, you have nothing
to do but to take the vine branches out of the house, and keep
them there until such time that they might be put in again with-
out their leaves producing an inconvenient shade over the plants,
previous to the time of these latter being moved out into the
open air.
57- As the green-house would have given you a beautiful
flower-garden and shrubbery during the winter, making the part
of the house to which it is attached the pleasantest place in the
world, so, in summer, what can be imagined more beautiful than
bunches of grapes hanging down, surrounded by elegant leaves,
and proceeding on each grape from the size of a pin's head to
the size of a plum ? How the vines are to be planted, trained
and pruned ; and how the several plants suited to a green-house
III.] AND GREEN- HOUSKS. 39
are to be propagated, reared and managed ; will be spoken of
under tbe head of Vines, and under those of the several plants
and flowers ; but I cannot conclude this Chapter without ob-
serving, that it is the moral effects naturally attending a green-
house, that I set the most value upon. I will not, with Lord
H\(on, praise pursuits like these, because "God Almighty fir6t
planted a garden ;" nor with Cowlky, because " a Garden is
like Heaven;" nor with Addison, because a " Garden was the
habitation of our first parents before their fall ;" all which is rather
far-fetched, and puts one in mind of the dispute between the gar-
deners and the tailors, as to the antiquity of their respective
callings ; the former contending that the planting of the garden
took place before the sewing of the fig-ieaves together ; and the
latter contending, that there was no gardening at all till Adam
was expelled, and compelled to work ; but, that the sewing was a
real and bona fide act of tailoring. This, to be sure, is vulgar
and grovelling work ; but who can blame such persons when
they have Lord Bacon to furnish them with a precedent ? I like,
a great deal better than these writers, Sir William Temple,
who, while he was a man of the soundest judgment, employed
in some of the greatest concerns of his country, so ardently and
yet so rationally and unaffectedly praises the pursuits of gardening,
in which he delighted from his youth to his old age ; and of his
taste in which he gave such delightful proofs in those gardens
and grounds at Moor Park in Surrey, beneath the turf of one
spot of which he caused, by his will, his heart to be buried, and
which spot, together with all the rest of the beautiful arrange-
ment, has been torn about and disfigured within the last fifty
years by a succession of wine-merchants, spirit-merchants, West
Indians, and God knows what besides : I like a great deal bet-
ter the sentiments of this really wise and excellent man; but I
look still further as to effects. There must be amusements in
everv family. Children observe and follow their parents in almost
everything. How much better, during a long and dreary winter,
for daughters, and even sons, to assist, or attend, their mother, in
a green-house, than to be seated with her at cards, or in the
blubberings over a stupid novel, or at any other amusement
that can possibly be conceived ! How much more innocent, more
pleasant, more free from temptation to evil, this amusement,
than any other ! How much more instructive too ! " Bend the
40 PROPAGATION AND [cilAP,
twig when young :" but, here, there needs no force ; nay, not
even persuasion. The thing is so pleasant in itself; it so natu-
rally meets the wishes ; that the taste is fixed at once, and it
remains, to the exclusion of cards and dice, to the end of life.
Indeed, gardening in general is favourable to the well-being of
man. As the taste for it decreases in any country, vicious amuse-
ments and vicious habits are sure to increase. Towns are preferred
to the country ; and the time is spent in something or other that
conduces to vice and misery. Gardening is a source of much
greater profit than is generally imagined ; but, merely as an amuse-
ment, or recreation, it is a thing of very great value : it is a pur-
suit not only compatible with, but favourable to, the study of
any art or science : it is conducive to health, by means of the
irresistible temptation which it offers to early rising; to the stirring
abroad upon one's legs ; for a man may really ride till he cannot
walk, sit till he cannot stand, and lie abed till he cannot get up.
It tends to turn the minds of youth from amusements and attach-
ments of a frivolous or vicious nature : it is a taste which is in-
dulged at home : it tends to make home pleasant, and to endear us
to the spot on which it is our lot to live : and, as to the expenses
attending it, what are all these expenses, compared with those
of the short, the unsatisfactory, the injurious enjoyments of the
card-table, and the rest of those amusements or pastimes which
are sought for in the town ?
CHAPTER IV.
On Propagation and Cultivation in general.
53. In order to have good products, we must be careftd and
diligent in the propagation and cultivation of the several plants:
for, though nature does much, she will not do all. He who
trusts to chance for a crop, deserves none, and he generally has
what he deserves.
59. The propagation of plants is the bringing of them forth,
or the increasing and multiplying of them. This is effected in
several different ways : by seed, by suckers, by offsets, bv layers, by
cuttings. But, bear in mind, that all plants from the radish to the
oak, may be propagated by the means of seed ; while there are
IV.] CULTIVATION IN GENERAL. II
many plants which can be propagated by no other means ; and,
of these the radish and the oak are two. Let nie just qualify
here, bv observing, that I enter not into the deep question (which
so many have puzzled their heads with) of equivocal generation. I
confine mvself to things of which we have a certain knowledge.
60. With regard to propagation by means other than that of
seed, I shall speak of it fully enough under the names of the
several plants, which are, as to the way of propagating them, to
be considered as exceptions to the general rule. Therefore, I
shall, in the present Chapter, treat of propagation by seed only.
61. Cultivation must, of course, differ, in some respects, to suit
itself to certain differences in the plants to be cultivated ; but
there are some principles and rules, which apply to the culti-
vation of all plants ; and it is of these only that I propose to speak
in the present Chapter.
62. It is quite useless, indeed it is grossly absurd, to prepare
land and to incur trouble and expense, without duly, and even
very carefully, attending to the seed that we are going to sow. The
sort, the genuineness, the soundness, are all matters to be attended
to, if we mean to avoid mortification and loss. Therefore, the
first thing is the
SORT OF SEED.
63. We should make sure here ; for, what a loss to have late
cabbages instead of early ones ! As to beans, peas, and many
other things, there cannot easily be mistake or deception. But,
as to cabbages, cauliflowers, radishes, lettuces, onions, leeks, and
numerous others, the eye is no guide at all. If, therefore, you
do not save your own seed (of the manner of doing which I shall
speak by and by), you ought to be very careful as to whom you
purchase of; and, though the seller be a person of perfect pro-
bity, he may be deceived himself. If you do not save your own
seed, which, as will be seen, cannot always be done with safety ;
all you can do, is, to take every precaution in your power when
you purchase. Be very particular, very full and clear, in the order
you give for seed. Know the seedsman well, if possible. Speak
to him yourself on the subject, if you can ; and, in short, take
every nrecaution in your power, in order to avoid the mortifications
like^hose of having one sort of cabbage when you expected
another, and of having rape when you expected turnips or rata baga.
42 PROPAGATION AND [CHAP.
TRUE SEED.
64. But, besides the kind, there is the genuineness to be con-
sidered. For instance, you want sugar-loaf cabbage. The seed
you sow may be cabbage : it may, too, be sugar-loaf, or more that
than anything else: but, still, it may not be true to its kind. It
may have become degenerate ; it may have become mixed, or
crossed, in generating. And thus, the plants may very much dis-
appoint you. True seed is a great thing ; for, not only the time
of the crop coming in, but the quantity and quality of it, greatly
depend upon the trueness of the seed. You will have plants to be
sure ; that is to say, you will have something grow ; but you will
not, if the seed be not true, have the thing you want.
65. To insure truth in seed, you must, if you purchase, take all
the precautions recommended as to sort of seed. It will be seen
presently, that, to save true seed yourself, is by no means an easy
matter. And, therefore, you must sometimes purchase. Find a
seedsman that does not deceive you, and stick to him. But, ob-
serve, that no seedsman can always be sure. He cannot raise all
his seeds himself. He must trust to others. Of course, he may,
himself, be deceived. Some kinds of seed will keep good many
years ; and, therefore, when you find that you have got some very
true seed of any sort, get some more of it : get as much as will
last you for the number of years that such seed will keep ; and, to
know how many years the seeds of garden plants will keep, see
paragraph 150.
SOUNDNESS OF SEED.
66. Seed may be of the right sort ; it may be true to its sort j
and yet, if it be unsound, it will not grow, and, of course, is a
great deal worse than useless, because the sowing of it occasions
loss of time, loss of cost of seed, loss of use of land, and loss of
labour, to say nothing about the disappointment and mortification.
Here, again, if you purchase, you must rely on the seedsman ; and,
therefore, all the aforementioned precautions are necessary as to
this point also. In this case (especially if the sowing be exten-
IV.] < TLTIVATION IN liKNKRAL. 48
sive) the injury may be very great; and there is no redress. If a
man sell you one tort qf teed for another ; or, if he sell you untrue
seed; the law will give you redress to the full extent of the injury
proved; and the proof can be produced. Hut, if the seed does
not come up, what proof have you ? You may prove the sowing ;
but, who is to prove, that the seed was not chilled or scorched in
the ground ? That it was not eaten by insects there ? That it was
not destroyed in cowing up, or in germinating j?
6'7. There are, however, means of ascertaining, whether seed be
sound, or not, before you sow it in the ground. I know of no
seed which, if sound and really good, will not sink in water. The
unsoundness of seed arises from several causes. Unripeness, blight,
mouldiness, and age, are the most frequent of these causes. The two
first, if excessive, prevent the seed from ever having the germinat-
ing quality in them. Mouldiness arises from the seed being kept
in a damp place, or from its having heated. When dried again it
becomes light. Age will cause the germinating quality to evapo-
rate; though, where there is a great proportion of oil in the seed,
this quality will remain in it for many years, as will be seen by-
and-by.
G8. The way to try seed is this. Put a small quantity of it in
lukewarm water, and let the water be four or five inches deep. A
mug or basin will do, but a large tumbler glass is best; for then you
can see the bottom as well as top. Some seeds, such as those of
cabbage, radish, and turnip, will, if good, go to the bottom at once.
Cucumber, melon, lettuce, endive, and many others, require a few
minutes. Parsnip and carrot, and all the winged seeds, require to
be worked by your fingers in a little water, and well wetted, before
you put them into the glass ; and the carrot should be rubbed, so
as to get off part of the hairs, which would otherwise act, as the
feathers do as to a duck. The seed of beet and mangel wurzel are
in a case or shell. The rough things that we sow are not the
seeds, but the cases in which the seeds are contained, each case
containing from one to five seeds. Therefore the trial by water is
not, as to these two seeds, conclusive ; though if the seed be very
good; if there be four or five in a case, shell and all will sink in
water, after being in the glass an hour. And, as it is a matter of
such great importance, that every seed should grow in a case where
the plants stand so far apart; as gaps in rows of beet and mangel
wurzel are so very injurious, the best way is to reject all seed that
4-i PROPAGATION AND [(HAP.
will not sink, case and all, after being put into warm water, and
remaining there an hour.
69. But, seeds of all sorts are, sometimes, if not always, part
sound and part unsound ; and, as the former is not to be rejected
on account of the latter, the proportion of each should be ascer-
tained, if a separation be not made. Count, then, a hundred seeds,
taken promiscuously, and put them into water as before directed.
If fifty sink and fifty swim, half your seed is bad, and half good;
and so, in proportion, as to other numbers of sinkers and swimmers.
There may be plants, the sound seeds of which will not sink ; but
I knoiv of none. If it be found in any instance, they would, I think,
be found in those of the tulip-tree, the ash, the birch, and the
parsnip, all of which are furnished with so large a portion of
wing. Yet all these, if sound, will sink, if put into warm water,
with the wet worked a little into the wings first.
70. There is, however, another way of ascertaining this impor-
tant fact, the soundness or unsoundness of seed ; and that is, bv
solving them. If you have a hot-bed (or, if not, how easy to make
one for a hand-glass), put a hundred seeds, taken as before di-
rected, sow them in a flower-pot, and plunge the pot in the earth,
under the glass, in the hot-bed, or hand-glass. The climate, under
the glass, is warm ; and a very few days will tell you what pro-
portion of your seed is sound. But there is this to be said ; that,
with strong heat under, and with such complete protection
above, seeds may come up that would not come up in the open
ground. There may be enough of the germinating principle to
cause vegetation in a hot-bed, and not enough to cause it in the
open air and cold ground. Therefore I incline to the opinion that
we should try seeds as our ancestors tried witches ; not by fire, but
by water ; and that, following up their practice, we should repro-
bate and destroy all that do not readily sink.
SAVING AND PRESERVING SEED.
71. This is a most important branch of the gardener's business.
There are rules applicable to particular plants. Those will be
given in their proper places. It is my business here to speak of
such as are applicable to all plants.
72. First, as to the saving of seed, the truest plants should be
IV.] CULTIVATION IN GBNBRAL. 1")
•elected ; that is to say, such as are of the most perfect shape and
quality. In the cabbage w« seek small stem, well-formed loaf, few
spare, or loose, leaves ; in the turnip, large hull), small neck, slender-
stalked leaves, solid flesh, or pulp ; in the radish, high colour (if
red or scarlet), small neck, few and short leaves, and long top. The
marks of perfection are well known, and none hut perfect plants
should he saved for seed. The case is somewhat different as to
plants, which are some male and others female, hut these present
exceptions to he noticed under the names of such plants.
73. Of plants, the early coming of which is a circumstance of
importance, the very earliest should he chosen for seed; for they
will almost always he found to include the highest degree of per-
fection in other respects. Thev should have great pains taken with
them ; the soil and situation should he good ; and they should he
carefully cultivated during the time that they are carrying on their
seed to perfection.
74. But effectual means must he taken to prevent a mixing of the
sorts, or, to speak in the language of farmers, a crossing of the breeds.
There can be no cross between the sheep and the dog : but there
can be between the dog and the ivolf; and, we daily see it, between
the greyhound and the hound ; each valuable when true to his
kind ; and a cross between the two, fit for nothing but the rope :
a word which, on this occasion, I use, in preference to that of halter,
out of respect for the modern laws and usages of my country.
75. There can be no cross between a cabbage and a carrot ; but
there can he between a cabbage and a turnip : between a cabbage
and a cauliflower nothing is more common ; and, as to the different
sorts of cabbages, they will produce crosses, presenting twenty,
and perhaps a thousand, degrees, from the Earlv York to the Savoy.
Turnips will mix with radishes and ruta-baga ; all these with rape ;
the result will mix with cabbages and cauliflowers; so that, if
nothing were done to preserve plants true to their kind, our gar-
dens would soon present us with little besides mere herbage.
76. As to the causes, 1 will not here dive into them. Suffice it
that we know, that all sorts will mix, when seed-plants of the same
tribe stand near each other ; and we may easily suppose, that this
may probably take place though the plants stand at a considerable
distance apart, since I have, in the case of my Indian corn, given
proof of mixture, when the plants were three hundred yards from
each other. What must he the consequence, then, of saving seed
46 PROPAGATION AND [CHAP.
from cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, squashes, and gourds, all
growing in the same garden at the same time ? To save the seed
of two sorts of any tribe, in the same garden, in the same year,
ought not to be attempted ; and this it is that makes it difficult for
any one man to raise all sorts of seeds good and true.
77' However, some may be saved by every one who has a gar-
den ; and when raised, they ought to be carefully preserved. They
are best preserved in the pod, or on the stalks. Seeds of many
sorts will be perfectly good to the age of eight or ten years, if
kept in the pod or on the stalks, which seeds, if threshed, will be
good for little at the end of three years or less. However, to
keep seeds, without threshing them out, is seldom convenient, often
impracticable, and always exposes them to injury from mice and
rats, and from various other enemies, of which, however, the
greatest is carelessness. Therefore, the best way is, except for
things that are very curious, and that lie in a small compass, to
thresh out all seeds.
78. They should stand till perfectly ripe, if possible. They
should be cut, or pulled, or gathered, when it is dry ; and they
should, if possible, be dry as dry can be before they are threshed
out. If, when threshed, any moisture remain about them, they
should be placed in the sun, or near a fire in a dry room ; and, when
quite dry, should be put into bags, and hung up against a very dry
wall, or dry boards, where they will bv no accident get damp. The
best place is some room, or place, where there is, occasionally at
least, a fire kept in winter.
79. Thus preserved, kept from open air and from damp, the
seeds of vegetables will keep sounds and good for sowing for the
number of years stated in the following list; to which the reader
will particularly attend. Some of the seeds in this list will keep,
sometimes, a year longer, if very well saved and very well pre-
served, and especially if closely kept from exposure to the open air.
But, to lose a crop from unsoundness of seed is a sad thing, and, it
is indeed, negligence wholly inexcusable to sow seed of the sound-
ness of which we are not certain.
.v.]
CULTIVATION IN GENERAL.
47
YEARS.
Artichoke 3
Aap&ragtn 4
Halm 2
Basil 2
Bftm 1
Bean (Kidney) .... 1
Beet 10
Borage 4
Broccoli 4
Burnet 6
Cabbage 4
Calabash 7
Cale 4
Cale (Sea) 3
Camomile ...... 2
Capsicum 2
Caraway 4
Carrot 1
Cauliflower 4
Celery 10
Chervil 6
Cives 3
Corn 3
Corn-Salad 2
Coriander 3
Cress 2
Cucumber 10
Dandelion 10
Dock 1
Endive 4
Fennel 5
Garlick 3
Gourd 10
Hop 2
Horse-Radish 4
Hyssop 6
Jerusalem Artichoke . . 3
Lavender 2
Leek 2
Lettuce . .
Mangel Wurzel
Marjoram . .
Marigold
Melon .
Mint .
Mustard
Nasturtium
Onion
Parsley
Parsnip
Pea .
Pennyroyal
Potato
Pumpkin
Purslane
Radish .
Rampion
Rape
Rhubarb
Rosemary
Rue . '
Ruta-Baga
Salsify
Samphire
Savory
Scorzenera
Shalot .
Skirret .
Sorrel .
Spinage
Squash
Tansy .
Tarragon
Thyme . .
Tomatum
Turnip
Wormwood
9
10
4
3
10
4
4
2
2
0
1
1
2
3
10
2
2
2
4
1
3
3
4
2
3
2
2
4
4
7
4
10
3
4
2
2
4
2
48 PROPAGATION AND [CHAP.
80. Notwithstanding this list, I always sow new seed in pre-
ference to old,,\(, in all other respects, 1 know the new to be equal
to the old. And, as to the notion, that seeds can be the better
for being old, even more than a year old, I hold it to be mon-
strously absurd : and this opinion I give as the result of long ex-
perience, most attentive observation, and numerous experiments
made for the express purpose of ascertaining the fact.
81. Yet, it is a received opinion, a thing taken for granted, an
axiom in horticulture, that melon seed is the better for being old.
Mr. Marshall says, that it ought to be " about four years old,
though some prefer it much older." And he afterwards observes,
that " if new seed only can be had, it should be carried a week or
two in the breeches -pocket, to dry away some of the more watery
particles ! " Jf age be a recommendation in rules as well as in
melon-seed, this rule has it ; for, English authors published it, and
French authors laughed at it, more than a century past I
S2. Those who can afford to have melons raised in their gar-
dens, can afford to keep a conjurer to raise them ; and a conjurer
will hardly condescend to follow common sense in his practice.
This would be lowering the profession in the eyes of the vulgar ;
and, which would be very dangerous, in the eyes of his employer.
However, a great deal of this stuff is traditionary ; and how are
we to find the conscience to blame a gardener for errors inculcated
by gentlemen of erudition 1
83. 1 cannot dismiss this part of my subject without once more
cautioning the reader against the danger of unripe seed. In cases
where winter overtakes you before your seed be quite ripe, the
best way is to pull up the plants and hang them by the heels in a
dry airy place, till all green depart from the stalks, and until they
be quite dry, and wholly rid of juice. Even in hot weather, when
the seed would drop out, if the plants were left standing, pull or
cut the plants, and lay them on a cloth in the sun, till the seed be
all ready to fall out; for, if forced from the ])od, the seed is never
so good. Seeds will grow if gathered when thev are green as
grass, and afterwards dried in the sun ; but they do not produce
plants like those coming from ripe seed. I tried, some years ago,
fifty grains of wheat, gathered green, against fifty gathered ripe.
Not only were the plants of the former feeble, when compared
with the latter; not only was the produce of the former two-
thirds less than that of the latter ; but even the quality of the grain
IV.] CULTIVATION IN GENERAL. 49
was not half so good. Many of the ears had smut, which was not
the cam with those that came from the ripened seed, though the
land and the cultivation were, in both cases, the same.
SOWING.
86. The first thing relating to sowing is the preparation of the
ground. It may be more or less fine, according to the sort of
seed to be sown. Peas and beans do not, of course, recpiire the
earth so fine as small seeds do. But, still, the finer the better for
everything ; for it is best if the seed be actually pressed by the
earth in every part ; and many seeds, if not all, are best situated
when the earth is trodden down upon them.
87. Of course the ground should be good, either in itself, or
made good by manure of some sort. But, in all cases, the ground
should be fresh ; that is to say, it should be dug just before the
act of sowing, in order that the seeds mav have the full benefit of
the fermentation, that takes place upon every moving of the earth.
83. Never sow when the ground is wet ; nor, indeed, if it can
be avoided, perform any other act with or on the ground of a garden.
If you dig ground in wet weather, you make a sort of mortar of it ;
it binds when the sun or wind dries it. The fermentation does
not take place : and it becomes unfavourable to vegetation, espe-
cially if the ground be, in the smallest degree, stiff in its nature.
It is even desirable, that wet should not come for some days after
ground has been moved ; for if the wet come before the ground
be dry at top, the earth will run together, and will become bound
at top. Sow, therefore, if possible, in dry weather, but in freshly-
moved ground.
89. The season for sowing will, of course, find a place under the
names of the respective plants; and, I do hope, that it is unne-
cessary for me to say, that sowing according to the moon is wholly
absurd and ridiculous; and that it arose solely out of the circum-
stance, that our forefathers, who could not read, had neither
almanack nor calendar to guide them, and who counted by moons
and festivals, instead of by months, and days of months.
!)0. As to the act of solving, the distances and depths differ
with different plants, and these will, of course, be pointed out
under the names of those different plants ; but, one thing is com-
mon to all seeds ; and that is, that they should be sown in rows or
E
50 PROPAGATION AND [tHAP.
drills ; for, unless they be sown in this way, all is uncertainty.
The distribution of the seed is unequal ; the covering is of unequal
depth ; and, when the plants come up in company with the weeds,
the difficulty of ridding the ground of the latter, without destroy-
ing the former, is very great indeed, and attended with ten times
the labour. Plants, in their earliest state, generally require to be
thinned; which cannot be done with regularity, unless they stand
in rows ; and, as to every future operation, how easy is the labour
in the one case, and how hard in the other ! It is of great advan-
tage to almost all plants, to move the ground somewhat deep while
they are growing ; but how is this to be done, unless they stand in
rows ? If they be dispersed promiscuously over the ground, to
perform this operation is next to impossible.
91. The great obstacle to the following of a method so ob-
viously advantageous, is the trouble. To draw lines for peas and
beans is not deemed troublesome ; but, to do this for radishes,
onions, carrots, lettuces, beds of cabbages, and other small seeds,
is regarded as tedious. When we consider the saving of trouble
afterwards, this trouble is really nothing, even if the drills were
drawn one at a time by a line or rule : but this need not be the
case ; for a very cheap and simple tool does the business with as
much quickness as sowing at random.
92. Suppose there be a bed of Onions to be sown. I make my
drills in this way. I have what I call a Driller, which is a rake
six feet long in the head. This head is made of oak, 2 inches by
2| j and has teeth in it at eight inches asunder, each tooth being
about six inches long, and an inch in diameter at the head, and is
pointed a little at the end that meets the ground. This gives nine
teeth, there being four inches over at each end of the head. In
this head, there is a handle fixed of about six feet long. When
my ground is prepared, raked nice and smooth, and cleaned from
stones and clods, I begin at the left-hand end of the bed, and draw
across it nine roivs at once. I then proceed, taking care to keep
the left-hand tooth of the driller in the right-hand drill that has
just been made ; so that now I make but eight new drills, because
(for a guide) the left-hand tooth goes this time in the drill which
was before made by the right-hand tooth. Thus, at every draw, I
make eight drills. And, in this way, a pretty long bed is formed
into nice straight drills in a very few minutes. The sowing, after
this, is done with truth, and the depth of the covering must bo
IV.] i l i.ilVAl ion in GENERAL. 51
alike for all the seeds. If it be parsnips or carrots, which require
a wider distance between the rows ; or, cabbage-plants, which,
M they are to stand only for a while, do not require distances so
wide : in these cases other drillers may be made.
93. In the case of large pieces of ground, a hand-driller is not
sufficient. Yet, if the land be ploughed, furrows might make the
paths, the harrow might smooth the ground, and the hand-driller
might be used for onions, or for anything else. However, what
I did in America for Kidney Beans, was this. I had a roller drawn
by an ox or a horse. The roller was about eight inches in di-
ameter, and ten feet long. To that part of the frame of the roller
which projects, or hangs over, beyond the roller behind, 1 attached,
by means of two pieces of wood and two pins, a bar ten feet long.
Into this bar I put ten teeth; and near the middle of the bar two
handles. The roller being put in motion, breaks all the clods that
the harrow has left, draws after it the ten teeth, and the ten teeth
make ten drills, as deep or as shallow as the man chooses who
follows the roller, holding the two handles of the bar. The two
pieces of wood, which connect the bar with the hinder projecting
part of the frame of the roller, work on the pins, so as to let the
bar up and down, as occasion may require ; and, of course, while
the roller is turning at the end, the bar, with the teeth in it, is
raised from the ground.
9-4. Thus are ten drills made by an ox, in about five minutes,
which would perhaps require a man more than a day to make with
a hoe. In short, an ox, or a horse, and a man and a boy, \v i 1 1 do
twelve acres in a day with ease. And to draw the drills with a
hoe would require forty-eight men at the least : for, there is the
line to be at work as well as the hoe. Wheat, and even peas, are
in the fields drilled by machines ; but beans cannot, and especially
kidney -beans. Drills must be made : and, where they are culti-
vated on a large scale, how tedious and expensive must be the
operation to make the drills by line and hoe ! When the drills are
made, the beans are laid in at proper distances, then covered with
a light harrow ; and after all comes the roller, with the teeth lifted
up of course ; and all is smooth and neat. The expense of such
an apparatus is, really, nothing worth notice.
95. In order to render the march of the ox straight, my ground
was ploughed into lands, one of which took the ten rows of kid-
ney-beans ; so that the ox had only to be kept straight along upon
b2
52 PROPAGATION AND [CHAP.
the middle of the land. And in order to have the lands flat, not
arched at all, the ground was ploughed twice in this shape, which
brought the middle of the lands where the furrows were before. If,
however, the ground had been flat-ploughed, without any furrow,
there would have been no difficulty. I should have started on a
straight side, or on the straightest side, leaving out any crook or
angle that there might have been. I should have taken two distinct
objects, found, or placed, beyond the end of the work, and should
have directed the head of the ox in a line with those two objects.
Before I started, I should have measured off the width to find where
the ox ought to come to again, and then have fixed two objects to
direct his coming back. I should have done this at each end, till
the piece had been finished.
96. When the seeds, in the garden-sowing, are properly, and
at suitable distances, placed in the drills, rake the ground, and,
in all cases, tread it with your feet, unless it be very moist. Then
rake it slightly again j for all seeds grow best when the earth is
pressed closely about them. When the plants come up, thin them,
keep them clear of weeds, and attend to the directions given under
the names of the several plants.
TRANSPLANTING.
97. The weather for transplanting is the same as that for solv-
ing. If you do this work in wet weather, or when the ground is
wet, the work cannot be well done. It is no matter what the plant
is, whether it be a cucumber plant, or an oak-tree. It has been
observed, as to seeds, that they like the earth to touch them in
every part, and to lie close about them. It is the same with roots.
One half of the bad growth that we see in orchards, arises from neg-
ligence in the planting : from tumbling the earth carelessly in upon
the roots. The earth should be an fine as possible ; for, if it be not,
part of the roots will remain untouched by the earth. If the ground
be wet, it cannot ha fine. And, if mixed wet, it will remain in a
sort of mortar, and will cling and bind together, and will leave
more or less of cracks, when it becomes dry.
98. If possible, therefore, transplant when the ground is not
wet ; but, here again, as in the case of sowing, let it be dug, or
deeply moved, and well broken, immediately before you transplant
IV.] CULTIVATION IN GKNKKAL. 53
into it. There is n fermentation that takes place immediately after
moving, and a dew arises, which did not arise hefore. These greatly
exceed, in power of causing the plant to strike, anything to he
obtained by rain on the plants at the time of planting or by plant-
ing in wet earth. Cabbages and Ruta liaga (or Swedish Turnip)
I have proved, in innumerable instances, will, if planted in freshly-
moved earth, under a burning sun, be a great deal finer than those
planted in wet ground, or during rain. The causes are explained
i;i the foregoing paragraph ; and there never was a greater, though
a most popular error, than that of waiting for a shower, in order
to set about the work of transplanting. In all the books that I
have read, without a single exception : in the English Gardening
books ; in the English Farmer's Dictionary, and many other works
on English husbandry ; in the Encyclopaedia ; in short, in all the
books on husbandry and on gardening that I have ever read, English
and French, this transplanting in shoivery weather is recommended.
99. If you transplant in hot weather, the leaves of the plants
will be scorched ; but the hearts will live ; and the heat, assisting
the fermentation, will produce new roots in twenty-four hours, and
new leaves in a few davs. Then it is that you see fine vegetation
come on. If you plant in wet, that wet must be followed by dry ;
the earth, from being moved in wet, contracts the mortary nature ;
hardens first, and then cracks ; and the plants will stand in a
stunted state, till the ground be moved about them in dry weather.
If I could have my wish in the planting of a piece of cabbages,
ruta baga, lettuces, or almost anything, I would find the ground
perfectly dry at top ; I would have it dug deeply ; plant imme-
diately ; and have no rain for three or four davs. I would prefer
no rain for a month, to rain at the time of planting.
100. This is a matter of primary importance. How many crops
are lost by the waiting for a shower! And, when the shower comes,
the ground is either not dug, or it has been dug for some time, and
the benefit of the fermentation is wholly lost.
101. However, there are some very tender plants ; plants so soft
and juicy as to be absolutely burnt up, and totally destroyed, stems
and all, in a hot sun, in a few hours. These, which lie in a small
compass, must be shaded at least, if not watered, upon their re-
moval ; a more particular notice of which will be taken as we pro-
ceed in the Lists of the Plants.
102. In the act of transplanting, the main things are to take care
54 PROPAGATION AND [(;HAP.
not to bury the heart of the plant ; and to take care that the earth
be well pressed about the point of the root of the plant. To press
the earth very closely about the stem of the plant is of little use,
if you leave the point of the root loose. 1 heg this may be borne
in mind ; for the growth, and even the life of the plant, depend on
great care as to this particular. See Cabbage, paragraph 130, for
a minute description of the act of planting.
103. As to propagation by cuttings, slips, layers, and offsets, it
will be spoken of under the names of the several plants usually pro-
pagated in any of those ways. Cuttings are pieces cut off from
branches of trees and plants. Slips are branches pulled off, and
slipped down at a joint. Layers are branches left on the plant
or tree, and bent down to the ground, and fastened, with earth laid
upon the part between the plant and the top of the branch. Off-
sets are parts of the root and plant separated from the main root.
CULTIVATION.
104. Here, as in the foregoing parts of this Chapter, I propose
to speak only of what is of general application, in order to save the
room that would be necessary to repeat instructions for cultivation
under the names of the several plants.
105. The ground being good, and the sowing or planting hav-
ing been properly performed, the next thing is the after-manage-
ment, which is usuallv called the cultivation.
106. If the subject be from seed, the first thing is to see that the
plants stand at a proper distance from each other ; because, if left
too close, they cannot come to good. Let them also be thinned
early; for, even while in seed-leaf, they injure each other.
Carrots, parsnips, lettuces, everything, ought to be thinned in the
seed-leaf.
107. Hoe, or weed, immediately ; and, let me observe here, once
for all, that weeds never ought to be suffered to get to any size
either in field or garden, and especially in the latter.
10S. But, besides the act of killing weeds, cultivation means
moving the earth between the plants while growing. This assists
them in their growth : it feeds them : it raises food for their roots
to live upon. A mere flat- hoeing does nothing but keep down the
weeds. The hoeing when the plants are become stout, should be
deep ; and, in general, with a hoe that has spanes, instead of a
IV.] CULTIVATION IN GKNBRAL. 55
lucre flat plate. In short, a sort of prong in the pottute of'a hoc.
And the spane of this prong-hoe may be longer, or shorter, accord-
ing to the nature of the crop to be hoed. Deep-hoeing is enough
in some cases ; but, in others, digging is necessary to produce a fine
and full crop. If anybody will have a piece of cabbages, and will
dig between the rows of one half of them twice during their growth,
and let the other half of the piece have nothing but a flat-hoeing,
that person will find that the half which has been digged between
will, when the crop is ripe, weigh nearly, if not quite, twice as much
as the other half.
109. It may appear, that, to dig thus amongst growing plants,
is to cut off, or tear off, their roots, of which the ground is full.
This is really the case, and this does great good ; for the roots,
thus cut asunder, shoot again from the plant's side, find new food,
and send, instantly, fresh vigour to the plant. The effect of this
tillage is quite surprising. We are hardly aware of its power in
producing vegetation ; and we are still less aware of the distance,
to which the roots of plants extend in every direction.
1 1 0. Mr. Tull, the father of the drill-husbandry, gives the follow-
ing account of the manner in which he discovered the distance to
which certain roots extend. I should observe here, that he was
led to think of the drilling crops in the fields of England, from
having, when in France, observed the effects of inter-tillage on the
vines, in the vineyards. If he had visited America instead of France,
he would have seen the effects of that tillage, in a still more striking
light, on plants in the Indian corn-fields; for, he would have seen
those plants spindling, yellow, actually perishing, to-day, for want
want of ploughing ; and, in four days after a good, deep, clean, and
careful ploughing, especially in hot weather, he would have seen
them wholly change their colour, become of a bright and beautiful
green, bending their leaves over the intervals, and growing at the
rate of four inches in the twenty-four hours.
111. The passage to which I have alluded is of so interesting a
nature, and relates to a matter of so much importance, that I shall
insert it entire, and also the plate made use of by Mr. Tull to illus-
trate his meaning. I shall not, as so many others have, take the
thoughts, and send them forth as my own ; nor, like Mr. John
Christian Curwen, a Member of Parliament, steal them from
Tull, and give them, with all the honour belonging to them, to
a Bisho/i.
56
PROPAGATION AND
[CHAP.
112. " A Method how to find the distance to which roots extend
horizontally:' A piece, or plot, dug and made fine, in whole hard
ground, as in Plate II. Fig. 1.
I V.J CULTIVATION IN GENERAL. 57
"The end A 2 feet, the end B 12 feet, the length of the piece 20
" yards ; the figures in the middle of it are 20 turnips, sown early,
" and well hoed. The manner of this hoeing must be, at first, near
" the plants, with a spade, and each time afterwards, a foot dis-
" tance, till the earth be once well dug ; and, if weeds appear where
" it has been so dug, hoe them out shallow with the hand-hoe.
a Hut, dig all the piece next the out-lines deep every time, that it
u may be the finer for the roots to enter, when they are permitted
fl to come thither. If the turnips be all bigger, as they stand
'•' nearer to the end B, it is a proof that they all extend to the
** outside of the piece, and the Turnip 20, will appear to draw
" nourishment from six foot distance from its centre. But if the
" Turnips 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, acquire no greater bulk than the
" Turnip 15, it will be clear, that their roots extend no farther than
" those of the Turnip 15 does; which is about four foot. By this
" method the distance of the extent of the roots of any plant may
" be discovered. — There is also another way to find the length of
" roots, by making a long narrow trench, at the distance you ex-
" pect they will extend to, and fill it with salt; if the plant be
" killed by the salt, it is certain that some of the roots enter it.
1 13. " What put me upon trying this method, was an observa-
" tion of two lands, or ridges, (see Plate II. Fig. 2.) drilled with
" Turnips in rows, a foot asunder, and very even in them ; the
" ground, at both ends and one side, was hard and unploughed.
" The Turnips not being hoed were very poor, small, and yellow,
" except the three outside rows bed, which stood next to the land
" (or ridge) E, which land, being ploughed and harrowed, at the
'•' time the land A ought to have been hoed, gave a dark flourishing
" colour to these three rows ; and the Turnips in the row d, which
" stood farthest off from the new ploughed land E, received so
" much benefit from it, as to grow twice as big as any of the more
" distant rows. The row c being a foot nearer to the new ploughed
" land, became twice as large as those in d, but the row b, which
* was next to the land E, grew much larger yet. F is a piece of
" hard whole ground, of about two perch in length, and about two
" or three foot broad, lying betwixt those two lands which had not
" been ploughed that year ; it was remarkable that, during the
" length of this interjacent hard ground, the rows bed were as
" small and yellow as any in the land. The Turnips in the row
" d, about three foot distant from the land E, receiving a double
58 l'KOl'AGATION AND [CHAi>.
" increase, proves they had as much nourishment from the land E
u as from the land A, wherein thev stood, which nourishment was
" brought by less than half the number of roots of each of these
" Turnips. In their own land they must have extended a yard all
" round, else thev could not have reached the land E, wherein it
" is probable these few roots went more than another yard, to give
" each turnip as much increase as all the roots had done in their
" own land. Except that it will hereafter appear, that the new
" nourishment taken at the extremities of the roots in the landl?,
" might enable the plants to send out more new roots in their
" own land, and receive something more from thence. The row c
" being twice as big as the row d, must be supposed to extend
" twice as far ; and the row b four times as far, in proportion as
" it was of a bulk quadruple to the row d."
1 14. Thus, then, it is clear, that tillage amongst growing plants
is a great thing. Not only is it of great benefit to the plants ; not
only does it greatly augment the amount of the crop, and make it
of the best quality; but it prepares the ground for another crop.
If a summer fallow be good for the land, here is a summer fallow;
if the ploughing between turnips prepare the land for wheat, the
digging between cabbages and other crops will, of course, prepare
the land for succeeding crops.
115. Watering plants, though so strongly recommended in
English Gardening books, and so much in practice, is a thing of
very doubtful utility in any case, and, in most cases, of positive
injury. A countrv often endures present suffering from long
drought ; but, if even all the gardens and all the fields could, in
such a case, be watered with a watering-pot, I much question
whether it would be beneficial even to the crops of the dry season
itself. It is not, observe, rain water that you can, one time out of
a thousand, water with. And, to nourish plants, the water must
be prepared in clouds and mists and dews. Observe this. Besides,
when rain comes, the earth is prepai'ed for it by that state of the
air which precedes rain, and which makes all things damp, and
slackens and loosens the earth, and disposes the roots and leaves
for the reception of the rain. To pour water, therefore, upon
plants, or upon the ground where they are growing, or where seeds
are sown, is never of much use, and is generally mischievous ; for,
the air is dry; the sun comes immediately and bakes the ground,
and vegetation is checked, rather than advanced, by the operation.
IV.] I ri/riVATlON in GBMBRAL. 5!)
The best protector against frequent drought is frequent digging ;
or, in the fields, ploughing, and always deep. Hence will arise a
fermentation and (tens. The ground will have ■moisture in it, in
spite of all drought, whicli the hard, unmoved ground, will not.
But always dig or plough in dry weather, and the drier the wea-
ther, the deeper you ought to go, and the finer you ought to break
the earth. When plants are covered by lights, or are in a house,
or are covered witli cloths in the night time, thev may need water-
ing, and in such cases must have it given them by hand.
IK). I shall conclude this Chapter with observing, on what I
deem a vulgar error, and an error too which sometimes produces in-
convenience. It is believed, and stated, that the ground grows tired,
in time, of the same sort of plant ; and that, if it he, year after
year, cropped with the same sort of plant, the produce will be
small, and the quality inferior to what it was at first. Mr. Tull
has most satisfactorily proved, both by fact and argument, that this
is not true. And I will add this fact, that Mr. Missing, a barris-
ter, living in the parish of Titchfield, in Hampshire, and who was
a most excellent and kind neighbour of mine, has a border under a
south wall, on which he, and his father before him, have grown
early jieas, every year, for more, now, than fifty years ; and if, at
any time, they had been finer than they were every one year of the
four or five years that I saw them, they must have been something
very extraordinary ; for, in those years, they were as fine, and as
full bearing, as any that I ever saw in England.
117- Before I entirely quitted the subject of Cultivation, there
would be a few remarks to be made upon the means of pre-
venting the depredations of vermin, some of which make their
attacks on the seed, others on the roots, others on the stem, others
on the leaves and blossoms, and others on \\\e fruit ; but as 1 shall
have to be very particular on this subject in speaking of fruits, I
defer it till I come to the Chapter on Fruits.
118. Having now treated of the Situation, Soil, Fencing, and
Laving out of Gardens; on the making and managing of Hot- beds
and Green-houses ; and having given some directions as to Pro-
pagation and Cultivation in general, I next proceed to give Alpha-
betical Lists of the several sorts of plants, and to speak of the
proper treatment for each, under the three heads, Vegetables and
Herbs ; Fruits ; and Flowers.
60 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP
CHAPTER V.
Kitchen-garden Plants, arranged in Alphabetical order, ruith Direc-
tions relative to the Propagation and Cultivation of each sort.
119. The plants which are cultivated in the kitchen-garden are
either such as are for food, or for medicinal purposes. The former
are generally called vegetables, and the latter herbs ; and then there
are pot-herhs and medicinal herbs, which, altogether, forms a
strange jumble and inconsistency ; everything being vegetable that
grows out of the earth, from a blade of grass to an oak-tree. The
best and most consistent way, therefore, is to give the name of
Kitchen-garden plants to all the things grown in the kitchen-
garden, except fruits, which will have a distinct Chapter allotted
to themselves. The alphabetical order is also the best, because
each article is referred to with so much convenience. The reader
will please to bear in mind what has been said in the foregoing
Chapter with regard to propagation and cultivation in general ;
that Chapter being written for the express purpose of preventing
the necessity of repeating, under every particular article, directions
for selecting the sorts, for saving and preserving the seed, for sow-
ing, for transplanting, and for after cultivation. The rules there
laid down are applicable to all kitchen-garden plants ; some addi-
tional rules given in this Chapter will apply to each plant re-
spectively. After this preface, 1 begin the list of kitchen-garden
plants in the manner before described.
120. ARTICHOKE.— This plant is propagated either from
seed or from offsets. If from the former, sow the seed in rows a
foot apart, in the month of March; thin the plants to a foot apart
as soon as they are an inch high ; keep them cleanly weeded, and
the ground moved, now-and-then, during the summer ; and, in the
autumn, they will be large enough to plant out where they are to
stand and to bear. They are things that require a good deal of
room, and a very rich soil. Dung, which would be mischievous in
some cases, can do no harm here. The ground ought to be fresh
dug in the month of October, the plants taken up, and the points
of the roots tipped with a sharp knife. They should be planted
in clumps, at three feet apart in the row of clumps, and the rows
V.] ARTICHOKE. Gl
should be about five feet apart. Bach clump should have four
good plants in it, and these should be well fastened in the ground,
each plant standing at about nine inches from the other. When
winter comes on, if hard frosts come, the clumps should be covered
pretty thickly with litter, which, however, should be taken off
ajpun as soon as the frost is out of the ground ; but no plant which
has been covered to be protected from the frost should be unco-
vered, and the sun left to come upon the ground where it stands,
before the thaw has completely taken place. In the spring, the
ground about the clumps should be moved up a little with a fork,
and nicely broken in dry weather, in March or April. These
plants will bear fruit the first year ; and, if properly managed, will
continue to bear for a great many years. When their roots reach
stagnant water, or any soil which they do not like, the plants begin
to give out ; but otherwise, they will keep bearing for a great
number of years. The next spring, that is to say, the second
spring after having been planted out, you will find that they have
sent out great numbers of side-shoots or offsets ; you should,
therefore, move the earth away a little round the clump, and take
off these offsets, which would otherwise prevent the great bearing
of the plant. When you take off these offsets, you will find some
very stout, while others will be very weak ; and, if you want a new
plantation, these offsets are as good plants as any ; and, if stout,
they will bear the first year, but, and very conveniently, they will
come into bearing after the old plants have done. The artichoke,
although so robust a plant, is very sensible of the frost. Therefore,
each clump should have the earth drawn up pretty much about it
in the fall of the year, but in dry weather if possible, and in very
severe weather, some litter should be laid on the top of each
clump, being always taken off as soon as the frost is completely
out of the ground. In the spring, the whole of the ground ought
to be carefully dug, and the earth levelled down from the sides of
the clumps ; the offsets should now be taken off, and the plants
left to produce their crop. The rows of plants being five feet
apart, affords an opportunity for planting other things between
them ; but this can hardly be done to any great advantage except
you be in very great want of room j for, what you gain in this wav,
you lose by the imperfect culture of the artichokes. They love
cool ground, though not stagnant water at the bottom ; and perhaps
the best situation for them would be under the south side hedge
62 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [(HAP.
of the outer garden. One row of clumps along under that hedge,
and at three feet from it, would contain fifty clumps, which would,
if well cultivated, produce enough for any family in the world.
The artichoke is a large, rude and tall thing, and, thus situated, it
would not intercept the view of prettier crops. If part of that
shady hedge were wanted for other things, you might have two
rows of artichokes, extending half the length of the row before
mentioned. Those who are very fond of artichokes might have
some few clumps in an earlier spot ; and, to have them late in the
year, the latest should be cut off with stems as long as possible,
and these stems stuck into moist earth or sand in a cool shed or in
a cellar ; preserved in which manner, many people have them to eat
in January. There are two sorts of this plant, the difference of
which consists, I believe, solelv in the fruit, or rather of the flower ;
for, after all, the seed is the fruit. One of these sorts bears a coni-
cal head, and the other a head which is round. The latter is larger
than the former, but I never heard that there was any difference in
the quality. If you wish to save the seed of this plant, you ought
to let some of the earliest heads remain uncut, they will flower like
a thistle in the summer, and the seed, very much like that of
the sunflower, will be ripe in the fall. Gather it when per-
fectly dry, rub it out of the husk, and put it by in a very dry place,
where it will keep good for three years at the least.
121. ASPARAGUS.— This plant is raised from seed only. It
is contained in small berries which are first green and then red,
each of which contains two or three black seeds which are ripe in
the month of October. The seed should be then gathered, made
perfectly dry ; the pods kept whole and hung up in a dry place
for use ; when wanted to be sown, it should be rubbed out of tiie
pod. Out of the pod the seed will keep four or five years ; but, if
in the pod and kept dry, it would probably keep twenty. To have
asparagus beds, there are two ways of going to work : first : sowing
the seeds in the beds at once ; and, second, raising the plants else-
where, and transplanting them into beds. The beds ought to be
four feet wide, and not more, because you ought to be able to cut
the asparagus without going upon the beds. If the ground where
the beds are to be have a dry bottom to a great depth, the beds
mav stand pretty nearly upon a level with the common earth of the
garden ; but, if the bottom be wet, the paths between the beds
ought to be deep ; they ought to serve as trenches ; for asparagus
v.] kSPAfl \«.i I. (!.'}
does not like to have its roots sopping in wet ; and yet it likes rich
and rather moist ground. It is understood that the whole of the
garden has heen trenched to the depth of three feet nine inches, to
which depth, however, the root of the asparagus will not he verv
long in going ; for it the culture he good, and the bottom free from
stagnant water, a plantation will last for a good long life-time, or
more. The ground being manured well, well-dug, and made verv
fine, lay out your heds in March in dry weather ; or, indeed, in good
ground, any time in April may do very well. Suppose four heds
to be wanted, each of them as long as the width of one of the plats
in the garden. Lay out the four beds at the west end, for instance,
ofplat^; and the beds will, of course, run from north to south :
each bed is to be four feet wide, and each alley between the beds,
two feet, or two feet and a half wide. As you mark out your beds,
drive down, at each corner, a pin of some durable wood, about the
size of your wrist (if it be a stout one), and going down into the
ground a foot and a half at least, leaving six inches to be above
ground ; these pins being always ready to apply the line to, will
prevent the beds from ever getting out of their proper shape. Hav-
ing laid out the beds, make three lines along each, placing the first
line at six inches from the outside of the bed. The lines are to be
a foot apart, and that will leave six inches from the outside line to
the outside of the bed; sow the seed along these lines, press it well
down into the ground, and cover it lightly. The plants will be up
in June ; and, as soon as they are fairly up, thin them to a foot apart,
and keep them very clean and nicely hoed all the summer. They
will, in the autumn, have stalks or haulm about a foot high, which
will turn yellow in the month of November. When it does so, cut it
off, and cover the bed an inch or two deep with a mixture of wood
ashes or other compost. Thus the beds will lie all the winter. In
the spring, March or early in April, move the tops of the beds with
a fork, and carefully pick out all weeds that make their ap-
pearance ; and then throw upon the beds earth about two inches
deep from the alleys, making that earth very fine, and keeping the
edges of the alleys very smooth and straight. The plants will now
send out several shoots from each crown, and if kept clean during
the summer, the haulm will attain the height of three feet. This
year the plants will bear some seed ; but no notice is to be taken
of that ; and, in the month of November, wdien the haulm becomes
yellow, vou cut it off again close to the ground, and lay on good,
64 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
well-prepared compost, partly consisting of rotten dung, to the
depth of two inches or a little more. In the spring, in March,
throw upon the beds three inches deep of earth out of the alleys.
Break it very fine, and attend to keeping the sides of the bed very
smooth and erect. This is the third year after sowing; and if
the ground be good in its nature, and if all these instructions
be dulv attended to, there will be some heads of asparagus fit to
cut. The four beds will contain 588 stools or crowns ; and if you
were to cut only four heads of asparagus from each crown, you
would have above twenty hundred bundles of asparagus, a hundred
in each bundle. However, unless the crowns be very strong, it
would be best to wait another year ; and then, without cutting any
but what would be very fine, you would have more than any family
of reasonable size would want to consume. In the fall of this third
year, cut down the haulm as before ; put on manure again as be-
fore ; and in the next spring, take another two and a half inches of
earth out of the alleys and put on the beds as before. The alleys
will now be deep enough, and you need never throw any more earth
upon the beds, except the shovellings up of what has fallen into them
from the beds by washing or crumbling ; and this ought to be done
every spring, in March. Every fall, the haulm ought to be cut off;
and some little matter of manure, rather of a littery sort, scattered
on ; and this ought to be forked up every spring, previous to the
shovelling up of the alleys. One very great fault in the manage-
ment of asparagus beds, is, to suffer the seed to drop and to remain
on the beds. This seed will grow and become plants ; and, in a
short time, you have the bed all in confusion, young ones growing
at the top, and old ones growing underneath. Therefore, the
haulm ought to be cut off before the seed drops; and, if it should,
by accident, drop in the cutting of the haulm, the seed ought to
be swept carefully up with a broom and carried away. It is the
practice of many persons, and of most persons, to sow lettuces,
onions, and radishes, upon asparagus beds, which are taken off
before the haulm of the asparagus rises to any considerable height;
but this is a very bad practice : these plants rob the asparagus,
thev prevent its due cultivation ; and, in short, the injury to you
as a gardener is much greater than its good. In the cutting of
asparagus, great care must be taken to use a proper instrument,
and to make the cut in a proper manner. The instrument is a
knife made with teeth, like a saw, which ought to be put down
V.] ASPARAGUS. 65
close by the side of the shoot which you are going to cut off, and
then you separate the shoot from the crown by a push almost per-
pendicular ; for otherwise, you might destroy three or four shoots
in the cutting off of one. Those shoots which you do not cut off
for the purpose of eating, are left to go on to become haulm, and
these are cut down annually at the time and in the manner de-
scribed. Such is the manner of raising asparagus from seed. The
maimer of raising from plants is this : you sow the asparagus in
March or April, in the same manner as described for the beds, in
some other spot ; and, when the plants come up, you thin them
carefully to the distance of about three inches apart, keeping them
very clean all the summer. In October, or in March the next
year, you make your beds as before ; and, instead of sowing seed
in the three rows upon each bed as before directed, plant these
plants at a foot apart in these rows, placing their crowns about
half an inch below the top of the ground, and then covering
the beds over an inch or two deep with good compost, or fine
manure of some sort or other, having amongst it some salt, not
too much, or a pretty good portion of wood-ashes. You then
proceed with these beds, autumn and spring, precisely in the same
way with the beds of sown asparagus ; and you may, perhaps, have
them fit to cut a year •arlier ; and, if great care be taken, that will
certainly be the case. The asparagus is so excellent a plant ; it
is so good, and is so great a favourite, that it is one of the few
garden plants that is worth the trouble and expense of a hot-bed,
and particularly as the trouble which it gives is in an inverse
proportion to its value. To have asparagus in hot- beds, which
you may have if you will, from November until the time that it
comes in the open ground, this is the method ; make a bed, ac-
cording to the rules laid down in Chapter III. The bed ought to
be strong or weak ; that is to say high or low, according to the
season of the year. In November, for instance, you want but little
heat : in January and February a great deal : less in March, and
scarcely any in April. To have the plants, make a bed, the rows
on which should be seven inches apart, and the plants six inches
apart in the row. Fill this bed with plants that have stood one
year elsewhere in the manner before-mentioned. Let them stand
two years in this bed, and be managed there just in the same
manner as if they were going to stand there for ever. At the end of
these two years, as soon .as the haulm turns yellow, the plants will
v
66 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
be fit to take up to put into hot- beds. When you have made your
bed, and the heat is sufficiently up, put good earth upon it four
inches deep or thereabouts. Then take up the plants, or, rather,
the crowns from their bed, and place them upon the earth in the
hot-bed, as near together as they can conveniently stand. Take
care that the crowns are all the same height in the hot-bed, and
bring them from the garden beds with their balls of earth to them,
and their roots as little torn as possible. When you have the
crowns all neatly and evenly arranged upon the beds, fill all the
interstices between them with fine earth, give the whole a gentle
watering, and then cover the crowns over with fine earth six inches
deep. If the bed be a pretty strong one, and, if you give air judi-
ciously, and keep frosts effectually out, you may cut asparagus in
twenty days from the time that you put the crowns into the bed ;
but you must be watchful to give as much air as the season will
permit, otherwise the asparagus will be spindling, will be of a pale
colour, and will have very little taste. It may so happen, that,
when you are ready to put your asparagus into the bed, the crowns
may be locked up from you by frost. To be prepared for this, put,
in due time, more litter, or straw, upon your stock of crowns than
the frost can penetrate through. If you wish to have but one hot-
bed of asparagus every year, your annual provision of crowns will,
of course, be accordingly. These crowns will give you, in the hot-
bed, asparagus for a month or six weeks ', and that too, if you please,
in January or February. When they have borne their crop, they
are of no more use, and will, of course, be flung away ; but they
are worth the trouble, and 1 know of nothing that is more sure to be
attended with success. If the weather should prove very severe
while the crowns are in the bed, not only thick coverings, but linings,
must be resorted to, and these you will find fully described under the
head of Cucumber. As to the sorts of asparagus of which some
people talk, I, for my part, could never discover any difference :
some talk of red-topped and some of green-topped; but I am con-
vinced tnat all the difference that there is, is to be traced to the
soil, the climate, and the culture.
1 22. BALM. — This is a herb purely medicinal. A very little of
it is sufficient in any garden. It is propagated from seed, or from
offsets. When once planted, the only care required is to see that
it does not extend itself too widely.
123. BASIL is a very sweet annual pot-herb, being of two sorts,
V.] BASIL, BEAN. G7
the dwarf and the tall. It should he sowed in very fine earth early
in the spring, and transplanted into earth equally fine, with very
great care. Hut let me here speak of the place for herhs in gene-
ral. They should all be collected together in one spot if possible.
The best form is a long bed, with an alley on each side of it, the
bed too narrow to need trampling in order to reach the middle of
it. The herbs should stand in rows made across this bed, the
quantity of each being in due proportion to the consumption of the
family ; for it is a mark of great want of judgment to occupy great
spaces of ground with things that can be of no possible use. We
often see, in a gentleman's garden, as much parsley growing as
would be sufficient for the supply of a large country town ; and, as
to mint, I have often seen it covering several rods of ground, when
the sensible original intention was that it should be confined within
the space of a couple of square yards. Mint, however, forms an
exception to what has just been said about collecting the herbs to-
gether in one place; for its encroachments are such that it must
be banished to some spot where those encroachments can occa-
sionally be restricted by the operation of the spade.
124. BEAN, — Bean is the name given to two plants having
very little resemblance to each other in almost any respect. In
the French language, they have two different names wholly dissimi-
lar to each other. That sort which we call our bean, and which is
an upright plant, rising verv high, producing a very large seed,
and is called garden-bean or horse-bean: that species the French
cdWfeve ; that species which we call kidney- bean (because the seed
is exactly in the shape of a kidney), or French bean, because, I
suppose, it came originally from France, the French call haricot ;
which latter name has given rise to an application of it, very cu-
rious, but quite congenial to the turn of mind and taste of those by
whom it has been adopted. Thus, we see, a dish of stewed mut-
ton, made richer than its own means would afford, by all manner
of ingredients, called a haricot of mutton ; whereas the French
mean by a haricot of mutton a dish full of haricots or beans, with a
little morsel of mutton stewed along with them. The English bean,
which is that that we have now to speak of, has several varieties,
the favourite among which, is the broad bean, or Windsor bean.
The long-pod is the next best, though there are several others of
nearly the same form, size, and quality. But there is one bean
which is called the Mazagan, which comes earlier than the rest,
f2
6S KITCHEN-GARDEN^ PLANTS. [CHAP.
and which, on that account, is justly esteemed by those who like
this sort of vegetable, which, I must confess, I do not. All this
tribe of beans thrive best in moist and stiffish ground ; but, if we
desire to have them early, we must sow them early ; and, near a
wall, facing to the south, they may be sowed in November and
even in October ; and, if kept earthed up pretty nearly to their
tops, and in very sharp weather, covered from the frost, they will
stand the winter pretty well; and will be a little earlier than those
which are sowed in the latter end of February or beginning of
March. Another way to have these early beans, is, to sow a small
patch, and to let them come up within an inch of one another.
Standing thus upon a small piece of ground, they are easily pro-
tected in sharp weather; and are ready to be removed, by trans-
planting in the first mild weather in March ; but even then they
should go into the warmest part of the garden. Another sowing,
even of these, should take place in the latter end of February, or
very early in March, which is the time also for sowing the Wind-
sor bean, the long-pod, and all the other varieties. Of the Wind-
sor bean and the long-pod another sowing should take place in
April, and in every month until July ; that is to say, if the family
like them. The sowings ought to be of small extent, however, for
the crop is large, and the plant, when it has shed its blossoms, is
no great beauty, though exceeding almost all others in the sweet-
ness of its flower. Mice are great enemies of beans, or more pro-
perly speaking, they love them too much, as the cannibal said of his
fellow-creatures. This love, however, sometimes proves extremely
inconvenient to the bean-planter ; and, therefore, these gentry must
be kept down, which they easily are, however, by brick-traps,
which gardeners know very well how to set. The depth at which
the larger beans are sowed is about three inches, and the smaller
ones about two inches and a half; but, in every case, all the earth
drawn out of the drill, should be put in again upon the beans, and
trodden down upon them with the whole weight of the body
of a stout man ; for the more closely they are pressed into the
ground, and the ground is pressed upon them, the more certainly
and the more vigorously will they grow ; and the more difficult,
too, will it be for the mice to displace them.
124. BEAN (KIDNEY), which the French call HARICOT.—
The varieties here are perfectly endless ; but there are two distinct
descriptions of the kidney bean, dwarfs, and climbers. The mode,
V.j KIDNEY-BEANS. 69
however, of propagating and cultivating is the same in both cases,
except that the dwarfs require smaller distances than the climber,
and that the latter are grown with the assistance of poles which
the former are not. This is a plant, very different, indeed, in its
nature, from the fbve, or English bean : it is a native of a warm
climate; very sensible of frost, and only one degree more hardy
than the cucumber, and not at all more hardy than the squash.
The very slightest frost checks the growth of the plant and changes
the colour of the leaves ; and the leaves are absolutely scorched
up by frosts not sufficient to produce ice no thicker than gauze ;
so that, we have here a summer plant to all intents and pur-
poses ; a plant that must be cultivated under cover of some sort,
except at times when there is a complete absence of frost. The
general time for sowing kidney-beans, in ground quite open when
there is no shelter of any sort, and where covering is wholly im-
practicable, is the first of May. I beg the reader to bear this in
mind : I have tried the thing often enough : nine times out of ten,
earlier sowing does no good ; and even sowing at this time has
frequently been found too early. I have had my kidney-beans all
cut off in the month of June ; and, therefore, if crop be the
object, the first week in May is quite early enough, especially for
the climbers. But, people wish to have some small portion, at
any rate, of so capital a vegetable, as early as they possibly can.
Those who have the means, have them all the winter in hot-
houses; but a hot-bed or hot- beds are insufficient for such a pur-
pose. In our case, therefore, we must be content with the south
face of a wall, which, if made proper use of for this purpose, will
produce beans from twelve to twenty days earlier than they can be
had in perfectly open ground. A single row put in, two inches
deep, close to the wall, the beans at about three inches apart in
the row, about the tenth of April, and earthed up to the seed leaf
as soon as they are above ground, and kept carefully screened from
frost every night by the leaning of a board or some other thing
against the wall ; a single row of these beans, being also of the
earliest sort, will, in the south of England, produce beans fit to
gather in the last week of June; while the same sort of beans
sowed in the open ground at the same time, will either rot in the
ground and never come up ; or will, after coming up, be so injured
by the weather as to be overtaken by beans sowed early in May,
and will, after all, not produce a crop half so abundant. A good
70 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP,
general time for sowing the first dwarf beans for a crop, is, the first
of May : to have a constant supply, you should sow on the first of
every month, August inclusive. The climbing beans should be
sowed about the 10th of May. The culture of beans is a very easy
matter. For the dwarf sorts, you make drills two feet apart and
two inches deep, lay the beans along at three inches asunder, lay
the earth over them and tread it down hard. As soon as they
are up, which is very quickly, draw the earth from both sides (but
not when it is wet) close up to the stems, quite as high as the bot-
tom of the stem of the seed leaf, and then give all the ground a
good deep hoeing. The dwarf beans want nothing more than this:
they push on at a great rate : they begin to show their blossoms
in ten days, and if the frosts keep away, you have beans in a very
short time. Even while they are producing, you can, if you please,
dig along the centre of the intervals, and there have another crop
of beans j or, if you like better, savoys, broccoli, or other things,
for the autumn or the winter. The beans are soon taken off, and
your ground is ready for any succeeding crop. As to the climbers,
they are sowed and cultivated in the same manner ; and they will,
if you please, creep about upon the ground 3 but that is not the
best way. They should be planted in a double row, same depth
as the dwarf beans, and the two rows about six inches apart.
Then there should be an interval between each two double rows,
of five or six feet; they should be earthed up in the same man-
ner as described for the dwarf beans, and, as soon as earthed up,
the poles should be put to them. The poles ought to be about
eight feet long, and there ought to be two rows of poles to every
double row of beans, not placed upright, but diagonally ; and
placed on the internal side of the beans. The poles on one side
of the double row ought to point one way, and those on the other
side the other way, forming together a sort of rough trellis-work.
Beans will go on climbing and bearing till they get to the top. There
are two very distinct varieties of these climbers. One has a white
seed, and has the perfect kidney shape, the pod is very long and
perfectly smooth. This is called the Dutch runner, and is very
highly esteemed. The other variety has a seed not so flat, of a
black and red colour, it has a short pod, compared with the other ;
and that pod is rough, instead of being smooth, and the blossom is
red instead of being white, as in the case of the Dutch runner.
But there is a white sort of this bean also : like the red-blossomed
V.] kIDNBY-BEANS. 71
bean in all other respects, but having a white seed and a white
blossom. These are called rough runners, because the pod differs
from that o( other kidney-beans in being rough instead of smooth.
These are most admirable plants: they bear prodigiously ; their
product is, perhaps, the most delicate of all ; and, from the latter
end of July, until the actual coming of the frosts, they continue
to blow and to bear without the least relaxation, let the weather
be as hot or as dry as it may. The Dutch-runner is not a verv
great bearer, and it gives out in a comparatively short space of
time : it will, too, have good cultivation and favourable aspect ;
whereas the rough-runners will grow in the shade, will climb up
hedges and trees, will suffer their stems to be smothered with
weeds, and will continue to ornament whatever they cling to, and
to produce in abundance at the same time. But there is one pre-
caution, applicable to all sorts of kidney-beans, which must be by
no means neglected ; and that is, to take care that no pods be left
upon the plant, to contain beans approaching to a state of matu-
rity ; for, the moment there are such pods, they draw away all the
strength of the plant to themselves, and it would produce no more
pods fit for use. It is the same with the cucumber, suffer one
cucumber to become large and yellow, and to begin to ripen its
seed, and not another young cucumber will come upon the 8ame
plant. As to the sorts or varieties of dwarf beans, the yellow
dwarf, that I have imported from America, I have found to be
the earliest by several days, and also the greatest bearer. There
is the black dwarf, which is deemed early also. The speckled
dwarf is a great bearer, but not so early. The best wav, probably,
is to sow one row of each on the same day ; and though the dif-
ference in the time of coming in may not be much, it may be some-
thing, and nothing ought to be neglected in the case of a vegeta-
ble so universally and so justly esteemed. It is curious, that the
Americans should follow the example of the French with regard to
the use of the produce of the kidney-bean. Thev eat them as we
do, in the pod ; or, rather, they eat the pod, as we do ; but thev
eat them more frequently in the bean itself, and that at two different
stages, first, when it has got its full size in the pod, and when, to
me, it appears- a very nasty thing ; and second, they eat them as a
winter vegetable : they soak them and boil them. The French do
the same, and I can by no means discover that this was ever the
practice in England. The seed of the kidney-bean may always be
72 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
saved in England with great facility, if we would but take the pro-
per means ; that is to say, forbear from eating the earliest pods.
We ought always to set apart a row or a piece of a row for seed,
and resolve never to touch it till the seed be ripe. This is hardly
ever done : we keep eating on : above all things, we take the first:
hose that we save for seed are such as have had the good fortune
to escape us, so that our seed of this important plant is generally
very bad ; it is but half ripe, and a great deal of it rots as soon as
it is put into the ground. If the seed of this plant be well ripened,
it will keep good, if kept in the pod, for several years ; but if
taken out of the pod, it cannot be relied on after the first year. It
is always the best way to keep it in the pod until it be sown, if
that be practicable. It continues to be nourished there, and nature
has excluded it completely from the air.
125. BEET. — Some people enumerate several varieties of the
beet, and these of different colours. There are but two cultivated
in our gardens, and the great sign of their perfection, is their deep
blood colour, a deficiency in which respect is regarded as an
imperfection. One of these is tap-rooted, like a carrot, and the
other pretty nearly as much a bulb as the common garden turnip.
The seed of the beet is a little, round, rough pod, thick and hard,
and containing within it sometimes two and sometimes three black
seeds. The pod is sowed, for it is impossible to get the seed
out of it and to separate one from the other. To have fine beets,
the ground should be dug very deeply and made very fine. There
ought to be no clods in it, especially for the tap-rooted beet ; for
clods turn aside the tap-root and spoil the shape of the beet. No
fresh dung, bv anv means ; for that causes side shoots to go out
in search of it, and thereby makes the root forked instead of
straight; and, as in the case of carrots, a forked root is never
considered to be a good one. The ground being well and
deeplv dug and broken, drills should be nicely made about two
feet apart, and the seed laid along at the depth of about an
inch and a half, and at about a couple of inches from each
other. The earth that came out of the drill should be put back
upon the seed, and should be pressed down upon it very hard,
with the head of the rake, the foot of man being too rude for
this purpose. When the plants come up, they should be thinned
to about nine inches apart in the row : the ground should be
nicely fiat-hoed and kept clean during the summer : in October the
V.] BROCCOLI. 73
roots should be taken up, the leaves cut off within a quarter of
an inch of the crown, the roots put to dry in the sun for a week
or more, and then put away in some dry place, or packed in
sand like carrots, for winter use. Beets may be transplanted,
and will, in that way, get to a very good size, but they are apt
to be forked. They should remain in the seed bed till about
the size of a radish such as we eat at the table, and be put in
immediately in very line earth, and they will do very well, though
they will not be so smooth as those that are left to stand where
they are sowed.
126. BROCCOLI. — There are two distinct species or kinds of
the broccoli ; the purple, and the white. There are, besides, a
sort that is of a brimstone colour, and another that is greenish ;
but these only come from a mixture of the other two sorts. One
of which is white, or, rather, cream colour, not so white as a
cauliflower ; and the other is of a bright purple colour. Broccoli
is eaten from about the beginning of November, to about the
middle of April. The purple sort comes earliest ; and the white
is not generally in much perfection until about the middle of
February. There is a purple sort which is called Cape broccoli,
which comes earlier, 1 believe, than any of the other purple,
this being a purple too. Gardeners talk of early broccoli seed,
and of late; and doubtless, by dint of great care in saving seed
from the earliest heads, the habit of early produce in the plants
may be produced ; but, while I do not think there is much in
this, it ought to be attended to when people go to purchase
seed. The time for sowing the purple broccoli is about the
beginning of April, if you wish to have it in the autumn and in
the beginning of winter; and, if you wish to have it in the
spring, the beginning of May is a proper time to sow. Some-
thing, however, depends upon the goodness, as well as the easi-
ness, of the ground ; for, in good ground, especially if it be in a
warm situation, you may venture to sow either earlier or later
than the times here mentioned. The first week in May is quite
time enough to sow the white broccoli ; for, if sowed earlier,
it gets too much heat before the summer is over ; it begins to
form a head or flower before the frost comes ; and, if the head
be only closely approaching towards outward appearance, sharp
frost will destroy it : it will rot ; and as this sort of broccoli
never sends out sprouts from the side, you lose the produce
74 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
altogether. Now, as to the manner of sowing the seed, as to the
manner of treating the plants after they are up, as to the man-
ner of transplanting them where they are to stand to produce, and
as to the cultivation while they are going on towards a state of
producing. These are all the same as directed in the case of
the Cabbage, under which head I shall give full and minute
instructions relative to all these operations. But there is this
difference between the cabbage and the broccoli, that the lat-
ter, being a much larger plant than any of the garden cabbages,
must have a greater space to grow in. The rows ought to be
three feet apart, and the plants at two and a half feet apart,
in the rows. The broccoli plants have long stems ; and, there-
fore, the earth should be, at different times, during their
growth, drawn up to them, not only for the purpose of keep-
ing them upright, but for the purpose of nourishment also ;
for roots will start out of the sides of the stem and commu-
nicate great vigour to the plants. The same ought to be
done, indeed, in the case of cabbages ; but with more care in
the case of the broccoli.
128. BRUSSELS SPROUTS.— The plant that has generally
had this name given to it in England, is a thing quite different from
the real Brussels sprouts. This plant rises up with a very long
stem, which has a spreading open head at the top, but which
sends out from its sides great numbers of little cabbages, round and
solid, each being of the bulk of a large walrrut, and each being a
perfect cabbage-head in itself. This little cabbage comes out just
above the leaf which starts from the main stem, and it is in fact
lodged in the socket of that leaf; and, as the leaves are numerous,
there are frequently from thirty to fifty cabbages coming out of
each stem. The large leaves are broken down in the month of
August in order to give the little cabbages room to grow; and in
November these begin to be in perfection, and continue to be an
excellent vegetable all the winter. The time of sowing the seed is
the fore-part of April. The treatment of the plants, until planted
out, the same as that of the cabbage; and the distances at which
the plants ought to stand, the same as those mentioned for the
broccoli, these being also tall things and requiring much room.
Much care is necessary in the saving of the seed of this plant, which,
as I have observed before, has an open spreading crown at the top.
If you mean to save seed, you must cut off this crown, and let the
V.] ' HURNKT, CABBAGE. 75
seed-stems and flowers come out nowhere but from the little cab-
bages themselves. It is, most likely, owing to negligence in this
respect, that we hardly ever see such a thing as real Brussels sprouts
in England ; and it is said that it is pretty nearly the same in
France, the proper care being taken nowhere, apparently, but in
the neighbourhood of Brussels.
12!). BURNET is a very well-known grass, or cattle-plant.
Some persons use it in sallads, for what reason 1 know not, except
that, wheu cut or bruised, it smells like cucumber : its taste is cer-
tainly most disagreeable : it appears to me to be of no use in a
good garden : it is perennial, and, if curiosity should induce any
one to have it in a garden, it can be propagated either from seed,
or from a parting of the roots, and one square foot of ground will
be certainly enough to let it have.
130. CABBAGE. — Very different, indeed, is this article from
the last ; for, here we have a plant, universally used, growing easily
in almost every sort of soil, and forming part of the table supply,
in one shape or another, from the first day in January to the last
day of December. Under this head, therefore, I shall be very mi-
nute in my instructions, more especially as the instructions under
this head have been and will be so frequently referred to. First,
of the manner of sowing. I will speak of the seed, and of the sorts
and of the season for sowing by-and-by ; but let me first speak of
the manner of sowing. This manner I have already described in
great part in the fourth Chapter, where I speak of the drawing of
drills across a seed-bed. Make a seed-bed of the extent that you
want, and make the earth very fine : then mark it out in little
drills. Drop the seed thinly along these drills, put the earth back
upon the seed, and press it down very tightly upon it. When the
seed comes up, which will be very quickly, thin the plants to an
inch apart, or perhaps a little more ; and do not delay this work
by any means ; for, small as the roots are, the plants injure one
another if they stand crowded for even a short space of time while
in the seed-leaf. At the same time that you thin the plants, hoe
the ground all over very nicely with a small hoe, and particularly
near the plants. When the plants have got four or six rough leaves,
they will touch one another, and ought to be removed from the
seed-bed. They are too small as yet to be transferred to the spot
where they are to come to perfection ; but they ought now to be
removed for the purposes presently to be mentioned. Prepare
/6 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [cHAP»
for the purpose a bed three feet wide, and as long as the number of
your plants may require. Take up the plants with a trowel or a
stick, or something that will heave up the earth, and prevent the
breaking of the roots too much as they come out of the ground.
Then, with a little sharp-pointed stick, replant them in this new
bed at the distance of three or four inches apart every way. This
is called pricking out. If you have more plants than you want,
you throw away the small ones ; if you want all the plants that you
have got, it is advisable to divide the lot into large and small,
keeping each class by itself, in the work of pricking out j so that
when you come to transplant for the crop, your plants will be all
nearly of the same size ; that is to say, the large will not be mixed
with the small ; and there is this further convenience, that the large
ones may make one plantation and the small ones another. This
work should be done, if possible, in dry weather, and in ground
which has just been fresh dug. In a very short time, these plants
will be big enough to go into their final plantation : they will come
up with stout and straight stems, without any tap-root, and so well
furnished with fibres as to make them scarcely feel the effect of
transplanting ; whereas, if you were to suffer them to stand in the
seed-bed until large enough to be transplanted, they would come up
with a long and naked tap-root, ungamished with fibres, and would
be much slower in their progress towards perfection, and would, in
the end, never attain the size that they will attain by these means.
The next operation is, to put the plants out in a situation where
they are to produce their crop. They are to stand in rows, of
course ; and J will speak of distances by-and-by when I come to
speak of the different sorts of cabbages. At present I am to speak
only of the act of planting. The tool to be used is that which is
called a setting-stick, which is the upper part of the handle of a
spade or shovel. The eye of the spade is the handle of the stick.
From the bottom of the eye to the point of the stick should be about
nine inches in length. The stick should not be tapering ; but
nearly of equal thickness all the way down, to within an inch and
a half of the point, where it must be tapered off to the point. If
the wood be cut away all round, to the thickness of a dollar, and
iron put round in its stead, it makes a very complete tool. The
iron becomes bright, and the earth does not adhere to it, as it does
to wood. Having the plant in one hand, and the stick in the
other, make a hole suitable to the root that it is to receive. Put
V.] CABBAGE. 77
ill the root in Midi a way as that the earth, when pressed in, will
be on a level with the butt-ends of the lower or outward leaves of
the plant. Let the plant be rather higher than lower than this ;
for, care must be taken not to put the plants so low as for the earth
to fall, or be trashed, into the heart of the plant, nor even into the
inside of the bottom leaves. The stem of a cabbage, and stems of
all the cabbage kind, send out roots from all the parts of them that
are put beneath the surface of the ground. It is good, therefore,
to | lant as deep as you can without injury to the leaves. The next
consideration is, the fastening of the plant in the ground. I can-
not do better than repeat here, what I have said in my Year's Re-
sidence, Paragraphs S3 and 84 ; " The hole is made deeper than
" the length of the roots; but the root should not be bent at the
" point, if it can be avoided. Then, while one hand holds the plant,
" with its root in the hole, the other hand applies the setting-stick
" to the earth on one side of the hole, the stick being held in such
" a way as to form a sharp triangle with the plant. Then, push-
" ing the stick down, so that its point go a little deeper than the
"point of the root, and giving it a little twist, it presses the earth
" against the point, or bottom of the root." And thus all is safe,
and the plant is sure to grow. The general, and almost universal,
fault, is, that the planter, when he has put the root into the hole,
draws the earth up against the upper part of the root, and, if he
press pretty well there, he thinks that the planting is well done.
But it is the point of the root against which the earth ought to be
pressed, for there the fibres are ; and, if the v do not touch the earth
closely, the plant will not thrive. To know whether you have fast-
ened the plant well in the ground, take the tip of one of the leaves
of the plant between your finger and thumb. Give a pull. If the
plant resist the pull, so far as for the bit of leaf to come away, the
plant is properly fastened in the ground ; but if the pull bring up
the plant, then you may be sure that the planting is not well done.
The point of the stick ought to twist and press the earth up close
to the point of the root ; so that there be no hollow there. Press-
ing the earth up against the stem of the plant is of little use. As
to distances, they must be proportioned to the size which the cab-
bages usually come to ; and the size (difference in soil aside) varies
with the sort. However, for the very small sorts, such as the early
dwarf and early sea-green, a foot apart in all directions is enough ;
for there is no occasion to waste garden ground ; and you do not want
7S KITCHEN-GARDEN' PLANTS. [CHAP.
such things to stand long, and the plants are in plenty as to number.
The next size is the early York, which may have sixteen inches every
way. The sugar-loaf may have twenty inches. The Battersea and
Savoy two feet and a half. The large sorts, as the drum-head and
others, three feet at least. — Now, with regard to tillage, keep the
ground clear of weeds. But, whether there be weeds or not, hoe
between the plants in ten days after they are planted. You cannot
dig between the plants which stand at the smallest distances ; but
you may, and ought, to dig once, if not twice, during their growth,
between all the rest. To prevent a sudden check by breaking all
the roots at once, in hot weather, dig every other interval, leave
the rest, and dig them a week later. All the larger sorts of cab-
bages should, about the time that their heads are beginning to
form, be earthed up ; that is, have the earth from the surface
drawn up against the stem ; and the taller the plants are, the
more necessary this is, and the higher should the earth be drawn.
After the earth has been thus drawn up from the surface, dig, or
hoe deep, the rest of the ground. — Thus the crop will be brought to
perfection. — As to sorts, the earliest is the early dwarf ; the next
is the early sea-green ; then comes the early York. Perhaps any
one of them may do ; but the first will head ten days sooner than
the last. The greatest thing belonging to cabbages, is to have
heads, loaved and white, to cut early in the spring; and these you
cannot have unless you sow the seed in the last week of July or
first week of August ; and unless that seed be of the early sort and
true. The manner of sowing seed and of pricking out has already
been described. The plants should be put out into rows of two
feet apart, and about fifteen inches apart in the row ; and this work
should be done about the latter end of October. If, however, the
season have brought the plants verv forward, they mav go out a
little before ; but, if the weather prove very mild, it is a very good
way to dig them up and plant them again immediately, each in its
own place, about the middle of November; for, if they get too
forward, they will either be greatlv injured by a sharp winter, or
will, by a mild winter, be made to run up to seed in the spring,
instead of having heads; but, if the seed have been well saved,
there is very little danger of their running ; perhaps not a hundred
on an acre. It is the method of saving the seed that is the all-in-
all in this case. There are some who save the seed of cabbages
that have run. This is a marvellously easy and lazy way, and will
V.] CABBAGE. 79
give you seed ■ twelvemonth sooner than you can have it hy taking
the trouhle to select and put out the stumps of the best cabbages,
and taking care of them during the ensuing winter. 1 have known
seed thus saved to degenerate so much, as to give whole acres
with scarcely a plant that has not run off to seed in the spring,
instead of producing loaved heads ! Never save seed of any of
this tribe from plants that have run ; for it is pretty sure to
lead to rubbish and disappointment. Where it can be done con-
veniently, it is best to save a considerable quantity of cabbage-
seed at a time; even some hundreds of stumps, as it is then less
liable to be spoiled by the blossoming of other plants of the cab-
bage kind. In general, in the south of England, these cabbages,
if properly treated, and of a right-early sort, will have good white
loaves early in April, or, at latest, by the middle of April. These
are succeeded by others sowed early in the spring ; especially by
the sugar-loaf, which, if sowed in the spring, will produce fine
heads in the months of July, August, and September, and some
sowed a little later will carry you through to the month of No-
vember. Early Yorks sowed in June will follow these. For win-
ter use there really needs nothing but the savoy, and the dwarf
green is the best of that kind. When true to its kind, it is very
much curled, and of a very deep green. It should be sowed about
the middle of April, pricked out in the manner before described,
but at larger distances, because it is a larger plant, and because it
ought to acquire a good size of stem before it goes out into the
ground, the time for final planting being in the hot month of July,
and the distances being more extensive than those of the smaller
cabbages. Some savoys sowed about a month after the main
crop, and planted out six weeks later than the main crop, will
give vou greens in the winter, far preferable to any cale. Early
cabbages also, sowed and put out about the same time, and
planted in rows very close to each other, afford greens all the
winter long. By November, the green savoys, first planted out,
will have large and close heads. The drum-heads, and other
large cabbages, are wholly unfit for a garden. The red cabbage
is raised and cultivated in the same manner as the early cabbages.
It is put out in the fall of the year; but it is large, and must have
the same distances as broccoli. They form their heads in the
early part of the summer, and are hard, and fit for pickling, to-
wards the end of it. There remains now to speak of the manner
80 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
of saving cabbage- seed, which is a matter of great importance,
because the trueness of the seed is a circumstance on which de-
pend the earliness and goodness of the plant. The cabbage is a
biennial. When it makes its loaf in the summer, you cut the loaf
off in a sloping cut. The plant will then throw out side-shoots ;
but, in a month after cutting the head, the stump should be taken
up and laid by the heels, which will check the growing of the
sprouts. In the month of November these stumps should be put
out into rows where they are to stand for seed. There should be
two rows about eight inches from each other, the stumps in one
row being opposite the intervals of the other row; and then there
should be an interval of five feet between the rows, in order to
give you a clear passage for putting stakes and rods to hold up
the seed-branches ; and, also, for the purpose of going freely into
the plantation to keep off the birds, many of which are great pur-
loiners of cabbage-seed. When the seed-pods begin to turn
brown, cut the stems off close to the ground, and place them upon
a cloth in the sun. When perfectly dry, thrash out the seed ;
put it by, and keep it in a dry place. The ground where the seed
is grown should be kept perfectly clean. The stems of the plants
should be hilled up in the same manner as directed for a crop of
cabbages; and the whole of the ground in the intervals should be
dug in the month of March, an operation that will add greatly to
the crop of seed. For a garden, two or three plants are sufficient ;
but great care should be taken that they stand not near to any
thing of the cabbage or broccoli or cauliflower kind that is in
bloom at the same time.
131. CALABASH. — This is a species of crooked squash, good
for nothing as food, but is a very curious thing, having a large and
long shell, small in one part and big in the other, and, when the
big part is scooped out, becomes a ladle with a long handle to it.
A thing very well worth growing for the curiosity, and grown in
exactly the same manner as the squash.
132. CALE or KALE.— By some called Borecole. This is a
species of cabbage which is used in winter only. It does not head,
or loave, but sends forth a loose open top and numerous side-
shoots, particularly after the top is taken off. It is a very hardy
plant, resists all frosts; but it is at the same time but a coarse sort
of thing. It is to be sowed in the month of April, the plants
treated in the same way as that of the cabbage ; the distances at
V.] CALE (SEA). 81
which it is finally planted about two feet each way. There are
two sorts, one a bright green, and the leaf very much curled, and
the other of a reddish brown colour, and not curled at all. The
green is generally thought the best ; but as the green savoy will
stand the weather, if sowed rather later in the year than mentioned
under the head of Cabbagk, full as well as the Cale will, there
reallv seems to be very little reason for troubling one's self with
this very coarse vegetable; for it is ridiculous to seek a variety in
getting bad things to take their turn with good.
133. CALE (SEA). — This is a plant which is a native of the
sea-beach : it is, in fact, sea-cabbage. It has a bloom not much
unlike that of the cabbage, a seed also, only larger ; the leaf
strongly resembles the cabbage-leaf; but this is a perennial,
whereas all the cabbage kinds are biennials. This plant soon
gets to have a large stem or stool, like the asparagus, out of which
the shoots come every spring. These stools are covered over
pretty deep with sand or coal-ashes, or some such thing, and
sometimes with straw or leaves ; and the shoots, coming up under
the ashes or sand or earth, are bleached, until they come to the
air, and these shoots are cut off and are applied for table use, just
after the manner of the asparagus ; and though, in point of good-
ness, they are not to be put in comparison with the asparagus, they
come a month earlier in the spring, and for that reason they are
cultivated. They are propagated by seed, and also by offsets.
The mode of sowing and of planting may be precisely the same in
all respects as those directed for the asparagus, except that you
may begin to cut the cale for eating the second year. You cut
down the stalks in the fall of the year just in the same manner as
you cut down those of the asparagus ; and the treatment all
through may be just the same, except that there may be a greater
depth of ashes or of sand over the cale than of earth or manure
over the asparagus. While you can have asparagus in a hot-bed,
it can hardly be worth while to have the cale in that way; but
if you chose to do it, you might, and the method is the same,
except that the covering in the bed must be deeper for the cale
than for the asparagus. Gardeners sometimes, after having co-
vered the crowns well over with sand or ashes, or some other
thing, cover the point of each crown with a large flower-pot, which
keeping the sun and air from the shoots, these are bleached even
after thev come up above the ashes or the sand. This appears to
G
82 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
be a very good way ; for it saves the trouble of putting on litter
or leaves, which are very ugly things in a garden.
134. CAMOMILE is a perennial medicinal herb of great use.
It may be propagated from seed, but it is most easily propagated
by parting the roots. One little bit of root will soon make a bed
sufficient for a garden. The flowers which are used in medicine
should be gathered before they begin to fade, and at a time when
they are perfectly dry ; and then put into a shady and airy place
to dry, which they will do perfectly, but not in less than a month.
When perfectly dry, they should be put into a paper bag, hung up
in a drv -place, and kept from all dust.
135.' CAPSICUM.— This is a plant of a hot country. It is
sowed in the natural ground of the United States of America,
though it is a native of countries which are never cold. The seed
is, in this country, sowed in a gentle hot-bed, in the month of
March. In the middle of April they may be moved out, and planted
under a warm wall, so as to be covered by a frame and lights, or
bv hand-glasses, and so as to have air given them in the warm
part of the day. When no more frost is to be expected, and
when the general earth becomes warm, that is to say about the
third week in June, the plants, very carefully taken up, and with
the earth not much shaken off from their roots, should be
transplanted in a bed of fine rich earth ; but still in a warm part
of the garden. The bed should have hoops placed over it; the
plants should be shaded by mats every day for about a week, if the
sun be hot; and if the nights be very. cold afterwards, the beds
should have a little shelter in the night for a fortnight or three
weeks. To cause your plants to be very stocky and strong, take
them when in rough leaf, and prick them out on a gentle heat, or
even, if in small quantity, pot them singly, and plant them out
when you find them strong and the weather hot. In this manner
one plant will bear more fruit than a dozen little spindling ones.
The plants will be in bloom in July, and, in the month of Octo-
ber, their pods, which have a strong peppery taste, would be fit
to gather for pickling. There are several sorts of the capsicum,
some with red pods, some with green ones ; I do not know which
is the best in quality; and a very small quantity of these plants
will suffice for any family.
136. CARAWAY is cultivated for its seeds, which are used in
cakes, and for some other purposes. Sow the seed iu the spring,
V.] CARROT. 83
about the first of April, and leave the plants at about seven or eight
inches apart, in every direction. A small quantity of this plant
will be sufficient, as it is not a thing in very general request.
1S7. CAKROT. Read the article Beet; for the same soil, the
same manure, the same preparation for sowing, the same distances,
the same intercultivation, the same time of taking up, and the same
mode of preserving the crop, all belong to the carrot; but the
carrot ought to be sowed as soon as possible after the coming of
mild weather in the spring ; and great care must be taken to watch
the coming-up of the plants ; for there are several kinds of weeds,
the seed-leaves of which are so much like those of the carrot, that
it requires long experience and attentive observation to distinguish
one from the other. Carrot-seed lies long in the ground ; and,
therefore, the seeds of innumerable weeds are up long enough
before it. Great care must therefore be taken to keep down these
weeds in time without destroying the carrots ; and it is next to
impossible to do this, unless you sow the carrots in rows : no fresh
dung should be put into the ground where carrots are sowed, for
that would be sure to bring abundance of seed weeds. To save
carrot-seed, as well as beet-seed, you must take some of the last
year's plants, and put them out early in the spring. When the seed
is ripe, the best way is, with regard to the carrot, to cut off the
whole stalk, hang it up in a very dry place, and there let it remain
until you want the seed to sow. Kept in this way, it will grow
very well at the end of three or four years; but, if separated from
the stalk, it will not keep well for more than one year. There is
some care necessary in the sowing of carrot- seed, which it is diffi-
cult to scatter properly along the drill on account of the numerous
hairs which come out of the seed, and make them hang to one
another. The best way is, to take some sand, or ashes, or very
fine dry dust, and put a pint of it to a pint of seed, rubbing both to-
gether by your hands. This brings off the hairs from the seeds, and
separates them from each other, and then they may be very nicely
and evenly sowed along the drills. There ought to be no digging
between carrots, beets, or any other tap-rooted vegetables ; be-
cause the moving of the earth in the intervals invites the fibres to
grow large, and to become forks : deep cultivation is wrong here,
for the very same reason that it is generally good. Carrots are
sometimes raised in hot-beds ; but 1 shall speak of this under the
head of radishes.
g2
84 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
138. CAULIFLOWER.— The cauliflower is, in fact, one sort
of cabbage, and the French call it Choufleur, or flower-cabbage.
Its product, as a vegetable to eat, is a lump of rich pulp, instead
of being a parcel of leaves folding in towards a centre, and lapping
over each other. There is this distinction besides, that it is an
annual instead of being a biennial. The head or flower, as it is
called, sprouts off into real flower-stalks ; flowers come upon these
stalks ; seed-pods and seed follow the flowers, and the plant bears
seed within twelve months after it is sown. As much care as
possible should be taken in obtaining good and true seed, which,
as it is always pretty dear, is apt to be adulterated. Some per-
sons have talked of an early sort and a late sort; but I believe
there is but one. The manner of sowing the seed, and of thin-
ning out the young plants in the rows, is precisely that of the cab-
bage. The season of sowing for cauliflowers to be eaten in the
spring, is about the middle of the month of August. To guard
against the effects of the difference in seasons, the best way would
be, perhaps, to make three sowings, one on the first of August,
one on the fifteenth of August, and one on the 31st, for the day
which would be the proper day in one year, would not be the pro-
per day in another. When the plants are of the same size as the
cabbage-plants have been directed to be before pricked out, they
should be pricked out also ; but in a more careful and regular
manner than was thought necessary in the case of the cabbage-
plants. The spot should be one of the warmest in the garden ;
and it should not be a wet spot by any means. The cauliflower
is a tender plant, and, in severe weather, will want covering of
some sort, and, to say the truth, it is almost useless to attempt to
rear them unless you have glass to put them under in very severe
weather. They should be pricked out, therefore, in such manner
as to allow of frames or hand-glasses being placed over them.
They should not be covered, however, until the weather demand
it, and, in the meanwhile, you should hoe nicelv between them
very frequently, and, by that means, keep the earth as dry about
their stems as the season will permit. In very severe weather
they must be covered; but never any longer than is absolutely
necessary ; for, too much covering, and too much deprivation of
air, make them weak and disqualify them for bearing. From these
beds, you may plant them out in rows like cabbages, onlv at a
little greater distances, and, taking care to move a little earth
V.] CAULIFLOWER. 85
along with them, ahout the middle of March ; and, in those rows,
give them good cultivation, and earth them up in the manner
directed for the broccoli. But greater pains than this is gene-
rally taken ; for, in the month of November (not later than the
15th), they are generally put out in clumps of three, four, five, or
six in a clump, and there stand the winter, covered by hand-glasses
or bell-glasses, which are taken off when the weather is fine, and
raised up at the bottom by the means of bricks, to prevent a draw-
ing up of the plants. Towards spring, that is to say in the
month of March, the weakest of the plants in each clump are
taken up and planted elsewhere, and the glasses are continued to
be put over the other plants, and to be raised higher and higher at
the bottom according to the season and state of the weather. At
last, the plants become too big for the glasses, and the weather
too warm for any covering to be required. The glasses are then
wholly taken away, and the plants are left to produce their heads.
As the dry weather approaches, the earth is drawn round the
clumps so as to form a dish for each ; and, when the heads begin
to appear, it is the practice to pour water into these dishes. If
the ground be very rich, this watering is certainly unnecessary ;
but the earth should be very frequently moved round the stems of
the plants, and, as the intervals ought to be not less than five feet
wide, a good and clean digging of those intervals ought to take
place in the month of April. This would probably prevent the
necessity of watering, in all cases ; and I am disposed to recom-
mend it, being of opinion that it would be more efficacious for the
purpose intended. Cauliflowers begin to have good heads in the
month of May; sometimes earlier and sometimes later according
to the season ; and, in their commencement, as well as in their
duration, they are the formidable rivals of green peas. To have
cauliflowers in the autumn, you must sow early in the month of
March, in a hot-bed of no very great heat; and to which a great
deal of air should be given ; these plants should be pricked out in
April, in the manner before directed, and planted out in rows
when they attain the proper size ; that is to say, when they be-
come strong and bold plants. To have this vegetable very late in
the fall, and even in December, sow in the open ground, in the
first week in May : prick out and plant out as directed in the last
instance. If no hard frosts come early, these will have tolerable
heads in the month of November, and then, if there be some of
S6 KITCHEN- GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
them with very small heads, no bigger than a crown piece, vou
may, by taking the plants up, and putting their roots in sand in a
shed or cellar, have some tolerably good cauliflowers at Christmas.
I, having endeavoured one year to raise cauliflowers in Pennsylvania,
where they will not flower in summer on account of the excessive
heat, which continually keeps the heart open and prevents the head
from coming up, took my plants, in the month of November, when
their heads were just beginning to appear, and buried them in the
garden, according to the fashion of that country, observed in the
burying of cabbages ; that is to say, to place the cabbages along in
a row, close to each other, the head upon the level ground, and
the roots standing up in the air, and then to go on each side with
a spade, and throw up earth in such a manner as completely to
cover the heads and the leaves of the cabbages. Indeed, my cauli-
flowers went into the ground in company with some cabbages ;
and, to my great surprise, when we took up the part of the stock
in which the cauliflowers were, the greater part of them had heads
as big as an ordinary teacup. But this method would not do in
England; for we have wet as well as frost; and, in Pennsylvania,
when once the earth is safely locked up by the frost, there comes
no wet to sink into little ridges such as I have described. I think,
however, that, if hung up by the heels in a barn or a shed in No-
vember, cauliflowers would augment their size as much as if put
into sand in a cave. If you attempt to save cauliflower-seed, no
pains that you can take would possibly be too great. First look
over your stock of heads : you will see some of them less compact
than the others : more uneven, and more loose : round the edges
of the heads, you will see almost perfect smoothness in some, and,
in others, you will see a little sort of fringe appearing even before
the head comes to its full bigness ; and these heads, which are not
so compact as the others, will he less white, and drawing towards
a cream colour. Now observe, it is the compact, the smooth, the
white head, of which you ought to save the seed ; and, though it
will bear much less seed than a loose head, it will be good : vou
can relv upon it ; and that is more than you can upon any seed
that you purchase, though it come from Italy, whence this fine
vegetable originally came. There remains to notice only, that
the sun is apt to scorch the heads of cauliflowers, and to make
them of a brownish hue, which prepares them for rotting if much
wet afterwards come upon them. To protect them from this,
V.] ( KI.KKV. 87
bend and break down I couple of the large outer leaves, which will
be protection against both sun and wet while the head is arriving
nt maturity.
131). CELERY. — There arc three sorts of celery, the ivhite, the
red, and the solid. The bottoms of the leaves of the two former
become hollow; that is to sav, of the outside leaves ; and it if (teg
sirable that the part which is eaten should not be very hollow;
but the solid celery is, by no means, of so fine a flavour as the
other. The red is hardier than either of the other two ; and, like
most other hardy things, it is not so good as the more tender. Jt
is too strong ; and has a smell and taste somewhat approaching
to the hemlock. Celery is a winter plant ; but, as its seed lies
very long in the ground, it ought to be sowed early. It is difficult
to make come up ; and, though it might do very well to sow it in
a warm place in the month of March, the easiest way is, to sow it
upon a little bit of a hot-bed, though not on a greater extent of
ground than might be covered with a hand-glass; and that space
will contain a sufficiency of plants for any garden however large.
The plants come up very much like parsley, and when small, are
hardly distinguished from young parsley plants. As soon as they
have two rough leaves, the glass may be taken off, and they may
be exposed to the air. About six trenches of celery, running across
one of the plats, from north to south, would give about (iOO roots ;
and as it is not in use for much more than about a hundred davs
of the vear, here would be six roots for every day, which is much
more than any family could want. When the plants get to have
about four or five rough leaves, they ought to be pricked out upon
a little bed of very fine earth, by the means of a little pointed stick ;
and thev ought to stand in that bed at about four inches apart,
having their roots nicely and closely pressed into the ground. This
operation would take place by the middle of May, perhaps, and
here the plants would attain a considerable size by the month of
July, which, a little earlier or a little later, is the time for putting
them out into trenches. Knowing the number of plants that you
would want, you need prick out no more than that number ; but
if vou were to put out a thousand instead of six hundred, you
might have some to give to a neighbour whose sowing might hap-
pen to have failed ; and this, observe, is a thing by no means to be
overlooked ; for you will be a lucky gardener indeed, if you never
stand in need of like assistance from others; and this is one of
88 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
the great pleasures of gardening, that one has almost always some-
thing to give away from one's superabundance ; and here the gift
is accompanied with no ostentation on the one side, and without it
being deemed any favour on the other side. Your plants being
ready, about the middle of July, perhaps, make the trenches a foot
deep and a foot wide, and put them at not less than five feet asun-
der. The ground that you make the trenches in should not be fresh
dug, but be in a solid state, which very conveniently may be ; for
celery comes on just as the peas and early cabbages and cauliflowers
have gone off. Lay the earth that you take out in the middle of
the space between the trenches, so that it may not be washed into
them by the heavy rains ; for it will, in such case, cover the hearts
of the plants, and will go very nearly to destroy them. When you
have made your trench, put along it some good rich compost ma-
nure, partly consisting of wood ashes. Not dung ; or at least not
dung fresh from the yard ; for if you use that, the celery will be
rank and pipy, and will not keep nearly so long or so well. Dig
this manure in, and break all the earth very fine as you go. Then
take up your plants, and trim off the long roots. You will find,
that every plant has offsets to it, coming up by the side of the main
stem. Pull all these off, and leave only the single stem. Cut the
leaves off so as to leave the whole plant about six inches long.
Plant them, six inches apart, and fix them, in the manner so mi-
nutely dwelt on under the article Cabbage, keeping, as you are at
work, your feet close to the outside edges of the trench. Do not
water the plants ; and if you plant in fresh-dug ground, and fix
your plants well, none of the troublesome and cumbrous business
of shading is at all necessary ; for the plant is naturally hardy, and
if it has heat to wither it above, it has also that heat beneath to
cause its roots to strike out almost instantly. When the plants
begin to grow, which they quickly will do, hoe on each side and
between them with a small hoe. As they grow up, earth their
stems ; that is, put the earth up to them, but not too much at a
time ; and let the earth that you put up be finely broken, and not
at all cloddy. While you do this, keep the stalks of the outside
leaves close up to prevent the earth from getting between the stems
of the outside leaves and the inner ones; for if it get there, it checks
the plant and makes the celery bad. — When you begin the earthing,
take first the edges of the trenches ; and do not go into the middle
of the intervals for the earth that vou took out of the trenches.
V.] CELERY, CHERVIL. 89
Keep working backwards, time after time, that is earthing after
earthing, till you come to the earth that you dug out of the trenches;
and by this time, the earth against the plants will be above the
level of the land. Then you take the earth out of the middle, till
at last the earth against the plants forms a ridye, and the middle
of each interval a sort of gutter. Earth up very often, and do not
put much at a time. Every week a little earth to be put up.
You should always earth up when the ground is dry at top ;
and in October, when winter is approaching, earth up very
nicely to within four or five inches of the very top. When
you want celery for use, you begin at the end of one. trench, remove
the earth with a spade and dig up the roots. The wet, the snow,
aided by the frosts and by the thaws, will, if care be not taken, rot
the celery at the heart, particularly the wet which descends
from the top, lodges in the heart and rots it. To prevent this, two
boards a foot wide each form the best protection. Their edges
on one side laid upon the earth of the ridge, formed into a roof
over the point of the ridge, the upper edge of one board going an
inch over the upper edge of the other, and the boards fastened well
with pegs : this will do the business effectually ; for it is the wet
that you have to fear, and not the frost. If long and hard frost be
apprehended, a quantity of celery should be taken up and laid in a
bed of sand or light earth in a shed or cellar ; for when the ground
is deeply frozen, it is sometimes impossible to get it out without
tearing it to pieces ; and it keeps very well for several weeks in a
shed or cellar. To have the seed of celery, take one plant or two,
in the spring, out of the ridge that stands last. Plant it in an
open place, and it will give you seed enough for several years ; for
the seed keeps good for ten years at least, if kept pretty much
from the air, and in a dry place.
1 40. CHERVIL. — This, like celery, spinage, and some few other
garden plants, is very much liked by some people, and cannot be
endured by others. It is an annual plant : its leaves a good deal
like those of double parsley : it is used in salads, to which it gives an
odour that some people very much like : it bears a seed resembling
that of a wild oat; it is sowed in rows late in March or early in
April ; and a very small patch of it is enough for any garden : it
bears its seed, of course, the first summer, bears it too in great
abundance, and if properly preserved, the seed will last for six or
seven years at the least.
90 KITCHEN- GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
141. CIVES. — A little sort of Onion, which is perennial: it
mav be propagated from seed ; but the easiest way is by parting
the roots, which are bunches of little bulbs like those of crocuses
or snow- drops. The greens only of this plant are used ; and a
very small patch is sufficient for any garden. Five or six clumps
in the herb-bed would be sufficient.
142. CORIANDER is an annual plant that some persons use in
soups and salads. It is sowed early in April. The seed is also
used as a medicine. A yard or two square of it will be sufficient.
H3. CORN (Indian). — Infinite is the variety of the sorts of
Indian corn, and great is the difference in the degrees of heat suf-
ficient to bring the different sorts to perfection. Several of the
sorts will seldom ripen well with the heat which thev get in the
state of New York, requiring that of Carolina or Virginia, at least.
Other sorts will ripen perfectly well as far north as Boston ; and
there is a dwarf sort which will ripen equally well on land 500
miles to the north of the last-mentioned place. Whether this be
the same sort as that which 1 cultivate,' I do not exactly know ; but
mine never fails to come to perfection in England, be the summer
what it may. This is a very fine garden vegetable. The ear is
stripped off the stalk just at the time when the grains are full of
milk. The ears are then boiled for about twenty minutes : they
are brought to table whole ; each person takes an ear, rubs over
it a little butter, and sprinkles it with a little salt, and bites the
grains from the stalk to which they are attached, and which in
America is called the cob. In the Indian corn countries, everv
creature likes Indian corn better than any other vegetable, not ex-
cepting even the fine fruits of those countries. When dead ripe,
the grains are hard as any grain can be ; and upon this grain, with-
out any grinding, horses are fed, oxen are fatted, hogs are fatted,
and poultry made perfectly fat by eating the grain whole tossed
down to them in the yard. The finest turkeys in the whole world
are fatted in this way, without the least possible trouble. Nothing
can be easier to raise. The corn is planted along little drills about
three or four feet apart, the grains at four inches apart in the drill,
any when during the first fortnight in May. When it is out of the
ground about two inches, the ground should be nicely moved all
over, and particularly near to the plants. When the plants attain
to the height of a foot, the ground should be dug between them,
and a little earth should be put up about the stems. When the
V.] CUCUMBER. 91
plants attain the height of a foot and a half or two feet, another
digging (should take place, and the steins of the plants should In-
earthed up to another four or five inches : after this, you have
nothing to do hut keep the ground clear from weeds. The corn
will he in hloom, and the ears will begin to show themselves, in the
latter end of .July : in the latter end of August, there will he some
earn fit to eat ; and as some ears will always he more backward
than others, there will always he some in proper order for eating
till ahout the latter end of Septemher. Those ears which are not
gathered hefore Octoher, will become ripe, and the grains in them
hard : two or three of the finest ought to he saved for seed, and the
rest given to poultry : ahout three rows across one of the plats in
the garden would be sufficient for any family.
144. CORN-SALAD. — This is a little insignificant annual
plant that some persons use in salads. It is, indeed, a loeed, and
can be of no real use where lettuces are to be had. It bears abun-
dance of seed ; and a little of it may be had by sowing in April, if
any one should have the strange curiosity. If sown in August it
will stand the winter, and will not run off to seed so soon as if
sown in April.
145. CRESS is excellent in salads, with lettuces. It is a pep-
pery little thing, far preferable to mustard or rape. It is an an-
nual, and bears prodigious quantities of seed. A small quantity
should, in the salad season, be sowed everv six days or therea-
bouts ; for it should be cut before it comes into rough leaf, it is
sowed in little drills made with the tops of the fingers, and covered
slightly with very fine earth: it is up almost immediately, and
quite fit to cut in five or six days. This and other small salads
. may be very conveniently raised, in the winter time, in any hot- bed
that you happen to have.
14b. CUCUMBER. — The instructions relative to the raising
of cucumbers naturally divide themselves into two sets ; one ap-
plicable to the raising of cucumbers in hot-beds, and the other to
the raising of cucumbers in the natural ground, or with some
little portion of artificial heat. I shall first speak of the former ;
for the produce of this plant is a very great favourite ; it is a
general desire to have it early ; and it is unquestionably true, that
the flavour of the cucumber is never so delicate, and the smell
never so refreshing, as when it is raised in a hot-bed, or, at least,
by the means of some artificial heat. To do this, however, at so
92 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
early a season as to have cucumbers fit to cut in March, requires
great attention, some expense, but particularly great attention.
I shall, therefore, endeavour to give directions for the doing of this,
in as plain a manner as I possibly can ; and the reader will please
to observe, that the directions given for the rearing of cucumbers
will also apply to the rearing of melons ; or, at least, they will thus
apply in very great part, and with those exceptions only which
would be mentioned under the head of melons. In Chapter III.
we have seen how a hot-bed is to be made ; make such a bed, four
feet high, in the last fortnight of December. Make it, however,
for a frame of one light only ; and let it extend every way to a foot
on the outside of the bottom of the frame. Put on the frame as
directed in Chapter III., ascertain when the heat is what it ought
to be according to the rule laid down in that Chapter, cover the
bed over four inches deep with dry mould, a good provision of
which you ought to have prepared and kept in a shed. Then, and at
the same time, put about a bushel of earth in a flattish heap in the
middle of the bed, and lav about another bushel round the insides
of the frame at the same time. Turn this earth over with your
hand once or twice in twenty-four or forty-eight hours, giving the
bed air in the middle of the day ; then level the bushel of earth
very nicely, and put in some early-frame cucumber seeds in as
great number as you may want, at half an inch deep, cover them
over, and press the earth gently down upon them. They will
appear above-ground in a very few days ; but vou must take care
to give the bed as much air as it will endure, even before the seed
comes up ; and, after that, air must be given in as great quantity
as the weather will permit, to prevent the plants from being drawn
up with slender shanks. If the weather be very severe, litter or straw
should be laid all round the bed, and quite up to the top of the frame,
to keep out the frost and to keep in the heat ; but, above all things, as
much air as possible ought to be given ; for there is always a steam
or reek in a hot-bed ; and if this be not let out, it destrovs the stems
of the plants, and they very quickly perish. Yet there mav be
snow, there may be such severe frost, as to render this giving of
air very perilous. In the night-time, it will frequently be necessary
to cover over the top of the lights, not only with mats (which
always ought to be done at this time of the year) ; but with straw
to a considerable thickness, besides the mats. In this case, vou
first lay the mat over the glass : then put the straw upon the mat :
V.] CUCUMBER. 93
tlien put another mat over the straw, and fasten that mat securely
all over the frame, which is best done by billets of wood about a
foot and a half long and three inches thick each way, with a
tenter-hook at one end to hang it on to the mat. This is much
better than tacking the mats on to the frame by a hammer and
nails ; for this is a carpentering sort of work to be performed twice
a-dav. If the weather be tolerably favourable, if it be not ex-
tremely untoward, and if you have taken the proper pains, the
plants will be fit to beput into pots in about four or five days from
the time of their coming up. The time for doing this, however,
is best pointed out by the state of the plants, which, as soon a9
you see the rough leaf peeping up, are ready for potting. You then
get vour pots about five inches deep, six inches over at the top,
and four inches over at the bottom, measuring from outside to
outside. You put a small oyster-shell, the hollow part downwards,
over the hole at the bottom of the pot. You fill the pots about
three parts full of earth, heave the plants out of the ground with
your fingers, put two plants into each pot ; holding the head of
each towards the rim, while you put in more earth with the other
hand to fill the pot up to the rim. Then take the pot, and gently
rap the bottom of it upon the edge of the frame three or four times,
which will settle down the earth sufficiently, and will leave the
earth about half an inch below the rim. You may then press the
root of each plant a little with the point of your finger, and put on
a little more earth to make all smooth. Observe, that the shanks of
the plants are to go so deeply down into the pot, as to leave the
seed-leaves but a very little above the level of the earth in the pot.
The earth will come out of the heap to fill the pots with ; and a
very small part of it will suffice. You will now draw the earth
from the sides of the frame towards the middle of the bed, and,
having formed it into a broader heap than before, put the pots
down into the mould up to the rim, taking care that they stand
perfectlv level, and taking care also that the tops of the plants do
not stand too far from the glass ; for that would cause them to
be drawn up and be made weak. About six inches from the glass
is quite enough. I am supposing that your first cucumber-bed,
for the producing of fruit, is to have four lights. You will there-
fore want but four pots of plants, but it will be better to have
double the number ; the supernumeraries cost nothing, and they
may save a neighbour the trouble of making a seed-bed. In this
94 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
state the plants stand until they go into the bed where they
are to bear. They will be fit for removal as soon as they have
made two fair rough leaves, and have begun to exhibit the appear-
ance of shoots or runners coming forth. But, while the plants are
in this situation, you must be careful to top them or stop them.
From between the seed leaves there will come out a shoot, which
will presently have one rough leaf on each side of it; then between
these two rough leaves you will see a shoot rising. The moment
this is clearly distinguishable, pinch it clean out with your fore-
finger and thumb ; and this will cause shoots to come out on both
sides from the sockets of the two rough leaves which have been
left; and by the time that these side-shoots become an inch and
a half long, the plants ought to be removed into the large bed
where they are to grow and to bear ; for by this time they will
have filled the pot with roots ; and, if they stand in the pots much
longer, some of these roots will become matted together on the
outsides and at the bottom of the pot, where they will perish, and
cause the plants to be stunted. At this age, therefore, they should
be removed into the new bed, of the making and managing of which
we must now speak. The dung for it should be put into a heap,
and turned beforehand in the manner described in Chapter III.;
and about a week, or a little more, before the plants are ready to
come out of the seed-bed, this new bed must be made full four
feet high, or four feet and a half, in the manner directed in Chap-
ter III. The frame should be put on, the state of the heat ascer-
tained, in the manner there directed, and, in this case, the frame
ought to fit the bed as nearly as possible, and the bed ought not
to extend beyond the sides of the frame, as in the case of the
seed-bed ; for here there are to be linings, the purpose of which
we shall see by-and-by. This bed having arrived at the proper
heat, should be covered all over with dry mould to the depth of
four inches; then about three quarters of a bushel of similar
mould ought to be laid in the centre of each light, rather nearer,
however, to the back than to the front of the frame ; and at the
same time, three or four bushels of mould, or more, ought to be
laid round against the frame on the inside. The mould in the
heaps, as well as that round the sides of the frame, and in-
deed the mould all over the bed, ought to be stirred once
at least every day, and air ought to be given to the bed,
though there are as yet no plants in it. Everything having
V.] CUCUMBER. !>.")
been thus prepared, take four pots of the plants ; those which
appear to be the finest, of course ; put the mould into a round
heap under the middle of each light of the new bed, make
a hole in the centre of the heap suitable for your purpose. Take
the pots of plants, one at a time, put the fingers of one of your
hands on the top of the earth of the pot, then turn the pot upside
down, give the rim of it a little tap upon the edge of the frame,
pushing the oyster-shell with the fore-finger of the other hand,
and the plants and earth will come clean out of the pot in a con-
nected ball, which with both hands you are to deposite in the hole
which you have made in the heap in the centre of the light. When
you have thus deposited it, draw the earth of the heap well up
about the ball, and press it a little with your fingers, taking care
of two things, first, that the hole be sufficiently deep to admit the
ball down into it so low that the earth of the hill, when drawn up
about the plants, may come up quite to the lower side of the stem
of the seed-leaves ; and, second, taking care that the points of the
leaves of the plants be not more than six inches distance from the
glass. While the plants were in the seed-bed, it might have been
necessary to water them once or twice, and especially about four
days before their removal out of the pots ; and now again, at this
final transplanting, a little water should be given, gently poured on
in one place, between the stems of the two plants, and the hole
that that water makes should be covered again with a little fresh
earth. The other four pots of plants which you do not want, may
be sunk in the earth in any part of this new bed, being watered
occasionally, and finally flung away if you do not want them.
But at this time of the year the water must not be cold : it must
have stood in the bed, in a small watering-pot, to get warm, and
this must be observed continually until a much later season of the
year. By the time that you have these plants in the bearing-bed,
the latter end of January will have come, and you will have aH the
difficulties of hard weather to contend with. The bed itself will
not have a sufficiently strong heat for more than about a fort-
night, and therefore Uninys must be prepared, the dung for which
must be got ready in time, as mentioned in Chapter III., and the
lining is to be made thus : the first lining is put at the back, or
north side of the bed. It is, in fact, another narrow hot-bed,
built up along at the back of the original one, perpendicular, as
near as may be, till you approach the top, twenty inches through,
96 KITCHEN- GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
made of good materials, and put together with the greatest care.
It is to be carried up even to the height of the top of the frame,
where a board is to be laid upon it, close against the frame,
in order to prevent the steam, arising from it, finding its way in
upon the plants. This lining will send great heat into the bed,
and will continue so to do for a great while ; but still a fresh sup-
ply of heat will be wanted ; and, therefore, in about another fort-
night, you are to put a similar lining to both ends of the bed ; and,
in a fortnight from that time, or thereabouts, according to the
weather and the state of the bed, another similar lining in the
front of the bed, the dung having, in all these cases, been duly
prepared as noticed in Chapter III. As these linings sink, they
ought to be topped up, keeping them always as nearly as possible
to the height of the top of the frame. If very sharp weather come
before these linings, or before some of them have been made, good
quantities of litter or of straw ought to be brought temporarily to
supply their place, so that frost never reach the bed. Even when
there are linings, it is good, in very sharp weather, to put litter
and straw round the outsides of them; for, dung being moist, the
frost soon reaches it, and then it becomes inactive at once. To
these precautions relative to the heat, must be added the not-less-
important ones relative to air and light ; for, without these, no
plant will thrive, nor will it live but for a short space of time. At
this season of the year, the glasses must be covered over in the
night time, as was before mentioned in the case of the seed-bed ;
but these coverings should remain on in the morning never longer
than is absolutely necessary. Though there be no sun, there is
light, and plants crave the light at the time when nature sends
it. As to air, it is given to the plants by the means of pieces
of triangular wood, which every one knows how to make. The
light is lifted up at one end, and the tilter, as it is called, is put
under the middle of the light to keep it up to the height required.
You sometimes give air on the back side of the frame and some-
times on the front, according to the direction in which the wind is
coming. To give directions respecting the quantity of air, one can
only say, that it must be in proportion to the heat of the bed and
the state of the weather ; but it may be observed as an invariable
rule, that strong heat and a good quantity of air are the sure means
of having early cucumbers. When the air is kept excluded or
supplied in niggardly quantities, because the heat is not powerful
v.] CUCUMBER. !)7
enough to counteract its chilling effects, the plants will linger on
alive, to be sure, hut their colour will be approaching to a yellow,
their leaves small, their shoots slender, their blossoms small and
feeble, the fruit, if they show any, will not swell ; and, if they bear
after all, it will not be before pretty nearly the month of May, in-
stead of a decent bearing in the month of March. A good strong
bottom heat, with a great deal of light, and with a liberal quantity
of air, are the great means of having cucumbers. The next thing
to be noticed is, the after-cultivation of the plants, and, first,
with respect to the shoots or runners that come out of them.
There will come two shoots out of each plant, and these will soon
begin to grow in a horizontal position, and indeed go along the
ground, which it is their nature to do ; but these two shoots would
not be sufficient ; for they would soon get to the outside of the
bed, leaving the middle of the bed not half covered with vines ;
therefore, when these runners have got three joints, and are be-
ginning to make a fourth, pinch off the top of each runner. New
side-shoots or runners will then come out from the three joints.
When these have got four joints, which will be very quickly, pinch
off the fifth as soon as it appears. Each plant will now have a
dozen or two of runners, and that is enough for one light. After
this, you may let the runners go on, giving their heads a better
direction, now-and-then, in order to cover the ground in the bed;
for they will need no more topping. But there must be earthing
vp, as well as topping. As the plants advance above ground, so
they will below ground, and you must keep putting up earth to the
hills in order to supply fresh food for the roots, which you will find
pushing out in every direction. It is the practice of some gar-
deners, to be everlastingly drawing the earth away from the side
of the hills till they come to the plants, in order to take the points
of the roots up and put earth under them, so as to give the roots
a horizontal direction. This is sheer nonsense. All that is ne-
cessary is, to keep the hills continually made larger and larger in
circumference, as the roots approach the outside, and until you
have got all the bed level to the tops of the hills. As you extend
the circumference of the hills, the runners will advance upon you ;
and, that the bed may be covered evenly with the vines, the run-
ners should be occasionally held down by little pegs of wood with
hooks at the top of them. At last the bed is even and level a! I
over. And, finally, it is covered with the vines, and should always
H
98 KITCHEN- GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
be kept quite clear of the innumerable weeds that will start in such
a favourable situation; but, long before this, there will be blos-
soms and even fruit, if the plants be in good health. The first
fruit that appears generally remains small, and never swells to anv
size ; but these are soon followed by others that swell and that
come to perfection ; and, if all these directions be attended to,
and if the weather be not worse than it is one year out of twenty,
you can hardly fail to have cucumbers to cut about the middle of
March, which is a very fine thing for a gardener to say; and,
though here is a great deal of detail, though here are a great
number of things to do, there is much more of words than of
deeds in the thing : it takes two or three sentences to describe
how a plant is to be put into or turned out of a pot; but the act
itself is performed in half a minute. Care ought to be taken that
there be not too great a quantity of vines in the bed ; for, if the
mass of leaves be too great, they shade part of the vines, shade the
blossoms and the fruit ; and, instead of having more fruit from
the abundance of vines, you have perhaps none at all. This
overstocking of the bed with vines is a great and prevalent error.
For my part, J think one plant enough for each hill, and I never
kept but one in a hill, and, if I put two into a pot, it was by
way of precaution lest one should fail. One will bring more
weight of fruit than two, two more than three, and so on, till you
come to a number that would give you no fruit at all. The plants
thus crowded, rob one another ; their roots interfere with those of
each other. They cease to bear sooner than they would if they
stood singly; and, in short, my experience and observation induce
me strongly to urge the reader never to have in a hot-bed, whether
of cucumber or melon, more than one plant in a light. As the season
advances, a greater proportion of air is to be given, of course, and
there is to be less covering in the night-time, dependent, however,
more on the state of the weather than on the precise time of the
year ; for we have frequently mild weather in February and severe
weather in March. When the weather becomes such as that water
will have the chill taken from it by being placed under a south
wall or in a hot-bed, water thus prepared may do very well ; but,
until then, the water should be a little warm. Every one will be
a judge when the earth is so dry as to require water; but care
should be taken not to let the water fall in great quantities just
upon the stems of the plants at any stage of their growth, for that
V.] CUCUMBER. 9.Q
is apt to rot them. This early cucumber-bed will keep on bearing
very well until the latter end of May, by which time another bed,
made about the middle or latter end of March, will have succeeded
it. The plants for this second crop of cucumbers are to be raised
in pots put into the cucumber-bed last mentioned. They are to
be managed like those for the first bed, except that they must be
sown in a pot, instead of being sown in a hill. The bed for these
plants need not be above two feet and a half high, or thereabouts.
It will probably want a slight lining; but the materials need not
be equal to those made use of in the making of the early bed. Jn
the case of this latter bed, much air maybe given, and the covering
of a mat, or two at most, and that only in the night-time, will be
sufficient. In April some more plants may be sown in a pot in
this last bed, and repotted as before ; and, in the middle of June,
these may go out into hills (under hand-glasses or without) in the
open ground, there to produce cucumbers for pickling, or indeed
for using in any other way, from the middle of July until the time
that the frost comes. Thus will there be a succession of cucum-
bers from the middle of March to the month of October. As to
sorts, great attention must be paid ; for some sorts produce
their fruit a great deal quicker than others. There is one called
the early frame cucumber ; another is called early cluster cu-
cumber ; another is called the long prickly cucumber. The
early frame has doubtless been found to be the quickest in
coming to perfection ; but the cluster is a very great bearer, and
comes not much later than the other. There are several other
sorts, but the long prickly cucumber is most generally esteemed ;
and, therefore, ought to be sowed for those who want a general
crop. With regard to sorts, however, people generally save the
seed themselves of this plant, or get it from some careful and
curious neighbour; and every one sows that which happens to suit
his fancy. H you wish to save the seed of a cucumber, let some
one fine fruit remain ; but expect the plant, on which this fruit is,
to cease bearing as soon as the seed cucumber begins to ripen.
This fruit must hang upon the vine till it pretty nearlv rots off:
you then take the seeds and separate them from the pulp as clean
as you can, place them to dry in the sun ; but do not wash them
with water : when perfectly dry, but not before, put them away in
a dry place, and they will keep good for a great many years.
Guard them against mice, for, if they get at them, not one seed
h 2
100 KITCHKN-GARDKN PLANTS. [CHAP.
will they leave with the kernel of it not eaten. After all, if you
have no hot-bed at all, a couple of wheelbarrows full of hot dung
put into a hole a foot deep, and with good mould a foot deep laid
upon the dung, is a very good situation for cucumbers, which you
may sow there about the middle of May. Two or three plants
upon such a hill or bed; and, if you have a hand-glass, keep the
plants covered with that in the night-time and when the days are
cold, always giving air, however, when the sun is out, and, in time,
raising the glass upon bricks, and letting the vines run out under it.
Even if you have no hand-glass, you may cover, with the help of
hoops and a mat or a cloth, until the weather be such as to render
it safe for the plants to be at large. Finally, in very rich and warm
ground, you may sow cucumber-seed in the natural earth, the
ground having previously been well dug, and being kept very clean
afterwards ; and, though there be a chance of your having no crop,
you may have, and generally will have, a great quantity of cucum-
bers to pickle by the latter end of August. Before I dismiss this
article, let me observe, that I have omitted to say anything about
what is called setting the fruit by poking the centre of the male
blossoms into the centre of the female blossoms ; because I deem
it to be arrant, nonsense. The reader ought, before I entirely quit
this article, to be informed, that the hot-bed in which the cucum-
ber plants were first raised, may be turned to very good account
after the plants come out of it; asparagus may be put into it im-
mediately ; or, it may be sowed with radishes, onions, lettuces,
small-salad, or with carrots. Many purposes will suggest them-
selves to every man. And, if the bed should fail of its original
purpose altogether; or if, owing to some accident, the four-light
bed should fail of its purpose, still these hot-beds will be found to
be of great use for other purposes, and will be quite sufficient in
point of strength for plants of a more hardy nature.
147. DILL is an aromatic herb, very much like, only smaller
than fennel, and it is used by many amongst cucumbers to give an
additional relish ; as it is also in soups. It is a hardy biennial
plant, and a small patch in the herb garden of two feet by six will
be enough for any family. Sow in drills six inches apart, in the
spring, making the ground fine first, and raking fine earth lightly
over the drills. Thin the plants out when they are a couple of
inches high, and let them then remain where they are ; and you
will have abundance of self-sowed plants every spring for renew-
ing vour bed.
V.J i \m\ i . |f)|
14S. lv\Dl\ B, — Tbia is a plant used lor salads, and is some-
times used, perhaps, in cookery. There is a curled sort, and one
that hplahi, or smooth-leaved. The curled is generally preferred
to the other, hut perhaps there is very little difference in the qua-
lity. The lettuce, when to he had, is decidedly preferred to the
endive ; and therefore this latter is used for salad in autumn, and
through the winter as long as it can be had. If any one wish to
have endive in summer, it must he sowed early ; hut, about the
middle of the month of July, or, perhaps, a little before, is the
main time for sowing endive. If sowed much before, it generally
runs off to seed, and, in fact, it is so much ground and trouble
thrown away. Make a bed very fine, and sow the seed in drills at
eighteen inches apart, and about half an inch deep in the drill, the
earth being pressed down very closely upon the seed. The plants,
which will be quickly up, must be thinned as soon as possible to
eighteen inches in the row, and thus they will stand, throughout
the bed, at eighteen inches from each other. The leaf of the endive
goes off horizontally, and lies flat upon the ground ; and, if the
ground be good and rich, as it ought to be, and kept perfectly
clean, the points of the leaves will meet all over the ground,
though at distances so great ; but, if cramped for room, endive
can never be fine. When the plants have got something like their
full size, they are to be bleached before they be eaten ; for they
have a bitter and disagreeable taste, and are quite a coarse and
disagreeable thing unless made white. The manner of bleaching
them is this. You take the plant, put your fingers under all the
leaves that touch the ground, gather the whole plant up in your
hands into a conical form, and then tie it round with matting,
which is to go several times round the plant, and which is to cause
the plant to end so pointedly at the top as to prevent rain or dew
from reaching the inside. When the plant has remained thus for
about a fortnight, you cut it off at the stem, take off the matting,
and you will find that all the leaves, except those of the outside,
are become white and crisp, and free from bitterness of taste. To
have a succession of these in good order, you should begin at one
end of the bed and tie up a dozen or two once or twice a week ;
and, when you cut, always cut those that were tied up first j but it
is very important to observe that this work of bleaching or tying-
up must never be performed except when all the leaves of the
plants ate perfectly dry. The great difficulty in the case of endive,
102 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
is, to have it to use in winter ; for, though it is hardy enough, it
will rot, if it stand tied up too long ; and it is difficult to preserve
it, on account of this tendency to rot. One way is to take up
the roots with balls to them in the month of October, when they
are perfectly dry, tying the plants up, as before mentioned, at the
same time, planting these balls in sand or earth, in a shed. But,
as this can hardly make the plants reach, for use, beyond the mid-
dle of December, the only effectual way to have endive in winter, is,
to cover them with glazed frames in the fall of the year, or to do
the same very well with hoops and mats, taking all covering off in
mild weather, just protecting the plants from hard frosts, and going
on bleaching and cutting for use as directed for the autumn,,
Endive may be transplanted, but it does not transplant so well as
lettuce, and the plants are never so fine as those that remain on
the spot where they were sowed. If transplanted, they should be
put at about twelve inches apart, hoed nicely between and kept
clear from weeds. Endive, if sowed early in the spring, ripens its
seed that same summer ; but the best way is to save two or three
good plants that have stood the winter, and let them go to seed.
They will produce a great abundance, which, if carefully preserved,
will keep good four or five years, at the least. I have mentioned
the middle of July as the time of sowing for the main crop; but
some may be sowed later, as it does not require any great deal of
room.
149. FENNEL is a perennial herb, propagated from seed or
from offsets, sowed in the spring, or the offsets planted in the fall.
The plants should stand about a foot asunder. The leaves are
used in salads, or for the making a part of the sauce for fish. In
winter, the seeds are bruised, to put into fish-sauce, and they give
it the same flavour as the leaves of the plant. It is a very hardy
thing; two yards square in the herb-bed will be enough for any
family ; and, once in the ground, it will stand for an age.
150. GARLICK may be propagated from the seed ; but is
usually propagated from offsets. It is a bulb which increases after
the manner of the hyacinth and the tulip : the offsets are taken off
in the spring and planted in rows at a foot apart, being merely
pressed into the ground with the finger and thumb and covered
over with a little earth. The ground ought to be kept perfectly
clean during the summer, and, though it ought to be good, it
ought by no means to be wet. When the leaves begin to get
V.] t.Ul-RD, HOP. 1().'{
brown and to die, the root should he taken up and laid upon a
hoard in the hottest sun that is going until thev be perfectly drv :
then tied up in hunches by the leaves, and hungup and preserved
in a dry place.
151. GOURD is a sort of pumpkin; but 1 know not any use
that it is of. If any one wish to cultivate it, out of mere curiosity,
the directions will he found under " PUMPKIN."
1.52. HOP. — The hop-top ; that is to say, the shoot which
comes out in the spring and when it is about four or five inches
long, being tied up in little bunches, and boiled for about half an
hour, and eaten after the manner of asparagus, is as delightful a
vegetable as ever was put upon a table, not yielding, perhaps,
during about the three weeks that it is in season, to the asparagus
itself. What the hop is, in the hop plantations, every one in Eng-
land knows ; but the manner of propagating the plant is by no
means a matter of such notoriety. The hop mav be propagated
from seed ; but it never is. The mode of propagation is by cut-
tings from the crown or the roots. Pieces of these, about six
inches long, being planted in the ground with a setting-stick either
in spring or in autumn, shoot up and become plants. The hills or
clumps in the hop-plantations are generally formed bv plants which
have stood a year or two in a turnery where the cuttings have
been planted. About four or five of these plants are put into a
clump, little sticks are put to them the first year to hold up their
slender vines, the next year rods, the next year small and short
poles, upon which they begin to bear, and the next year poles of
the full length sufficient to carry a crop. The vines which have
gone up during the summer and borne the crop are cut off to
within two feet of the ground when the hops are gathered ; in the
spring of the vear, the earth is drawn away all round from the
hill, and all the top part of the plants is cut off, leaving the crown
to look like a piece of cork ; from this crown, which is lightly
covered over with earth, fresh shoots come again in great numbers,
a part of the finest of these go up the poles, the weak ones are
suffered to hang about the ground for some time ; they are then
cut off close to the ground, and the earth is drawn over the crown
of the hill, forming a pretty large heap altogether before the sum-
mer be over. To have hop-tops in a garden, therefore, about a
dozen or twenty hills might be planted along, and pretty near to,
cme of the hedges. The cultivation should be alter the manner
10-1 KITCHEN- GARDEN PLANTS. [f.HAP.
above directed ; but, as there must be some vines to go up to the
full length, there might be a pole or two to each hill to carry up
four or six stout vines. The poles need not be long, and, if thev
were not permitted to bear, the plant would be the stronger.
These hills would, every spring, send forth a prodigious number of
shoots to serve as tops. These, as was said before, are to be
cropped off close to the ground when they are four or five inches
long ; and the hills, when once established, will last for a life-
time with the culture before mentioned and with a good digging
of the ground once every winter.
153. HORSE-RADISH. — As a iveed, I know of nothing quite
so pertinacious and pernicious as this: I know of nothing but fire
which will destroy its powers of vegetation : and 1 have never yet
seen it clearly extirpated from ground which had once been filled
with its roots and fibres. But, as a vegetable, it is a very fine
thing : its uses are well known, and to those uses it is applied bv
all who can get it. It is generally dearer, in proportion to its
bulk, than any other vegetable, and much dearer, too. The trouble
which its cultivation gives, that is to say its encroachments,
causes it to be banished from small gardens ; and therefore it is
scarce, though so difficult to be destroyed. Any little bit of it,
whether of fibre or of root, a bit not bigger than a pea, not longer
than the eighth of an inch, if it have a bit of skin or bark on it,
will grow. The butts of the leaves will grow, if put into the
ground, and it bears seed in prodigious abundance. The best
wav to get horse-radish, is to make holes a couple of feet deep
with a bar, and to toss little bits down to the bottom of the holes,
and then fill them up again. You will soon have a plantation of
horse-radish, the roots long, straight, thick and tender. A square
rod of ground, with the roots in it planted a foot apart every way,
will, if kept clear of weeds, as it always ought to be and never is,
produce enough for a family that eats roast beef every day of their
lives. The horse-radish should be planted in the south-east or
south-west corner of the outside garden, near to the hedge, and
it ought to be resolved to prevent its encroachments beyond
the boundaries of the spot originally allotted to it. Every
autumn, that part of the ground which has been cleared during
the year, which might be about one third part of the piece,
ought to be deeply dug and replanted as before ; and thus there
will be a succession of young long roots ; for, after the horse-
V.] I.AVKNDKli, I.KKK. 105
radish lias borne seed once or twice, its root becomes hard, brown
on the outside, not juicy when it is scraped, and eats more like
little chips than like a garden vegetable : so that, at taverns and
eating-houses, there frequently seems to be a rivalship on the point
of toughness between the horse-radish and the beef-steak ; and it
would be well if this inconvenient rivalship never discovered itself
anywhere else.
154. HYSSOP is a sort of half-woody shrub, something be-
tween a tree and an herbaceous plant. The flower-spikes are
used, fresh or dry, for medicinal purposes. It is propagated from
seed or from offsets. A very little of it is enough : a couple of
plants in the herb-bed may suffice for any family.
155. JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE.— This plant bears at the
root, like a potatoe, which, to the great misfortune of many of the
human race, is everywhere but too well known. But this arti-
choke, which is also dug up and cooked like a potatoe, has, at
any rate, the merit of giving no trouble either in the cultivation or
the propagation. A handful of the bits of its fruit, or even of its
roots, flung about a piece of ground of any sort, will keep bearing
for ever in spite of grass and weeds ; the difficulty being, not to
get it to grow, but to get the ground free from it when once it has
taken to growing. It is a very poor, insipid vegetable ; but, if vou
have a relish for it, piHy keep it out of the garden, and dig up the
comer of some field, or of some worthless meadow, and throw
some roots into it.
156. LAVENDER. — A beautiful little well-known shrub of uses
equally well known, whether used in the flower or in the water
which is distilled from it. Like all other plants and trees, it may be
propagated from seed j but it is easiest propagated from slips, taken
off early in the spring, and planted in good moist ground in the
shade. When planted out, the plants should stand three feet apart.
The flower-stalks should be cut off, whether for preserving in
flowers, or for distillation, before any of the blossoms begin to fall
off. Just indeed as those blossoms begin to open wide. The lavender
plant grows large, and it should therefore be in the outer garden.
157. LEEK. — This is a plant, which, for certain purposes, is
preferred to onions. The time for sowing is as early in the
spring as the weather and the ground will permit ; the latter
end of February, or very early in March. Sow in little drills
made across a bed of fine earth, put the rows eight inches
106 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
asunder, and thin the plants to three inches apart in the row.
Keep the ground clean by nice hoeing until the middle of July
or thereabouts ; then take the plants up, cut the roots off to an
inch long, and cut off the tops of the leaves, but not too low
down; make deep drills with a hoe at two feet apart. Plant
the leeks in these drills with a setting-stick, fastening them well
in the ground, and leaving the drill open. As the plants grow,
put to their sides the earth that came out of the drill, after
that, draw more up to them on each side from the interval ; and,
if your ground be really good, as it ought to be, each leek will
be as big as your wrist in the month of October. They will
stand the winter perfectly well without anv covering at all ; but, as
a provision against hard frost, some plants should always be
taken up and put into earth or sand in a shed or in a cellar, for
the same reasons as those stated under the head of celery. Three
or four leeks that have stood the winter may be left at the end of
one of the rows, or, if you please, moved to another spot to pro-
duce seed which would be ripe in the month of August, and give
you enough for yourself, and for two or three neighbours.
158. LETTUCE. — This great article of the garden is milky,
refreshing, and pleasanter to a majority of tastes than almost any
other plant. So necessary is it deemed as the principal ingredient
of a good salad, that it is, in France and America, generally called
" Salad," and scarcely ever by any other name. It is therefore a
thing worthy of particular attention, not only as to propagation
and cultivation, but as to sorts. The way to sow lettuce in the
natural ground is this ; make the ground rich to begin with, draw
the drills across the bed fifteen inches apart, sow the seed thinlv
in these drills, and press the earth nicely down upon them, which
work is to be done as early as you can do it well, in the month of
March. When the plants come up, thin them quickly to four
inches apart. When they get to be about four or five inches high,
leave one and take up two throughout all the rows, and then hoe
the ground nicely between the remaining plants, having before-
hand made another bed to receive the plants thus taken up; plant
these in rows across a bed, the rows fifteen inches apart and the
plants fifteen inches apart in the row : this is done with a little
setting-stick with which you must carefully fix the point of the
root in the ground, as directed in the case of the cabbage plant.
Another sowing in April, managed in just the »ame wav, may be
V.] I.ETTITK. 107
the last for the summer; for if sowed later, it is verv rarely that
the plants will loave or he godlfl for anything! This is what every
man may do that has ground in sufficient quantity and well-situated ;
but the lettuce is a thing which people desire to have very early
in the spring, and, if possible, in the winter. To have lettuces to
eat in the winter, they must be sowed in August or September, in
the natural ground, in the manner before described, and in Novem-
ber, before they have been mauled by the frost, they must be
taken up without much disturbance of their roots, and put into a
pretty good hot-bed made for the purpose, the mould for which
ought to be eight inches deep, at the least. They should be wa-
tered a little at planting, should stand nine inches apart every way,
should be shaded from the sun, if there be sun, for a couple of days,
should then have as much air given to them constantly as the wea-
ther will permit, should be kept clear from rotten leaves and pu-
trified matter of every description, should have a lining to the bed,
if the weather require it, should above all things, have as much air
as the weather will permit, and should, however, be kept safe from
being touched by the frost. If all these things be attended to,
and if the season be not uncommonly adverse, you may have fine
lettuces by the latter end of December, and through the months of
January and February, an object the accomplishment of which
would be ensured by having a second bed made at the same time,
to contain plants a fortnight or three weeks younger. To have let-
tuces early in the spring. You sow in August or early in Sep-
tember, as before, transplant the lettuces in October into the
warmest and best-sheltered spots that you have. In beds about
three feet wide with hoops and rods placed over the beds soon
enough, in order to cover with mats in severe weather ; or instead
of hoops and mats, cover with a glass frame, and in very sharp
weather, with mats over that; but whatever the covering may
be, take it off the moment the weather will permit you to do it with
safety. There are, indeed, sorts of lettuce that will generally stand
the winter without any covering; in a warm place, and especially
on the south side of a wall. But these are the flat sorts that bring
round heads, and are poor, soft, slimy things compared with the
eoss lettuces ; though even these are better than none. The coss
lettuces grow upright, fold in their leaves like a sugar-loaf cabbage,
have a erispness and sweetness which the others have not. If any
of these, or indeed of anv other sort of lettuce, have stood uncovered
10* KITCHBNvQARDEK PI/ANTS. [CHAP.
until any part of January or February, they may be then moved into
a hot-bed, and will be very fine in March : if left to stand in the
ground and kept clear of slugs, they will still be a good deal earlier
than lettuces sowed in the spring, even if sowed in a hot-bed. But,
with all these means, so few can generally be had early in the
spring, that for general use, that is to say, for kitchen-gardeners
to get them for tradesmen's families pretty early in May, they must
be first raised in a hot-bed, sowed there early in March or late in
February, or sowed under glass upon cold earth, in the fall of the
year, and preserved as mere plants to plant out, having been kept
from the frost and the wet during the winter. This sowing takes
place in September ; the lights are placed in such a way as to let
no wet get into the frames ; the lights are taken off entirely in mild
weather ; a great deal of air is given ; and in March, these plants
are fit to go out into the natural ground, where they are sometimes
injured by the frost, but generally they are not. This is the way
in which the great crop of early lettuces is generally raised; and
that it is the best way, the long experience of the market-gardeners
has amply proved. As to the sorts of lettuces, the green coss and
the white coss are the best : the former is of a darker green than
the latter, is rather hardier, and not quite so good. Among the flat
sorts are the brown Dutch, the green cabbage, and the tennis-ball :
there are many other sorts, as well of upright as of flat, but it
would be useless to enumerate them, as it would only bewilder the
reader in his choice. As to the saving of the seed, half a dozen
plants that have stood the winter will be quite enough. The seed
will be ripe in August ; birds must be kept from it, or they will
have all the best before you gather it. The stalks ought to be cut
off and laid, till they be perfectly dry, in the sun, the seed then
put away in a perfectly dry place, and in a place where no mice
can get at it ; for if they get at it, not one good seed will they leave
you in a very short time.
159. MANGEL WURZEL.— This may be called cattle-beet j
but some persons plant it in gardens. It is a coarse beet, and is
cultivated and preserved as the beet is.
1 GO. MARJORAM. — One sort is annual and one perennial.
The former is called summer and the latter winter. The first sowed
on heat in the month of March. As its seeds are small, a good-
sized garden-pot sown with it and placed in a corner of the cu-
cumber-bed, will produce five hundred plants, which being gra-
V.] MAUIGOI.D, MELON. 109
dually hardened to the air and planted out when about an inch or
two high, will he enough for a large family. The winter, is propa-
gated by offsets ; that is, by parting the roots. The plants may
stand pretty close. As the winter sort cannot sometimes be got at
in winter, some of both ought to be preserved by drying. Cut it
just before it comes out into bloom, hang it up in little bunches to
drv first, for a day, in the sun ; then in the shade ; and when quite
dry, put it in paper-bags tied up, and the bags hung up in a dry
place.
lb* I. MARIGOLD. — An annual plant. Sow the seed in spring;
when the bloom is at full, gather the flowers ; pull the leaves of
the flower out of their sockets ; lay them on paper to dry In the
shade. When dry put them into paper-bags. They are excellent
in broths and soups and stews. Two square yards planted with
marigolds will be sufficient. It is the single marigold that ought
to be cultivated for culinary purposes. The double one is an orna-
mental flower, and a very mean one indeed.
162. MELON. — The melon is a hot-country plant, and must
be raised in England in precisely the same manner as directed for
early cucumbers, the rules laid down for which apply here equally
well in every respect except two ; namely, that the lights for me-
lons should be larger or more extensive than those for cucumbers ;
and that the earth for melons should not be light and loose, as in
the case of cucumbers, but should consist chiefly of very stiff loam.
The finest plants of melons that I ever saw were raised in stiff loam,
approaching to a clay, which had been dug out before, and turned
three or four times in a heap, mixed with dung from a sheep-yard,
about one-fifth dung and four-fifths loam. This loam should be
turned in a heap several times during one summer and one winter,
and then it is fit for use. You should begin to raise melons a month
or six weeks later than you begin with earlv cucumbers. Your seeds
may be sowed in a pot in the cucumber-bed, if you have one; if
not, vou must make one for the purpose, as in the case of the earlv
cucumbers ; though the season when you begin will be later, the bed
must be equally warm with that for the early cucumbers ; there
must be linings and everything necessary to keep up a steadv bot-
tom heat. A second crop of melons may succeed the first, in the
same way that the two crops of cucumbers succeed each other;
but as to putting melons out upon ridges to be covered with hand-
glasses or paper-frames, it never succeeds, one time out of twenty.
110 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [eHAP.
Melons want hotter ground than is hardly ever to be had in Eng-
land. There should be but one plant in a hill. I have had ten
fine melons from one single plant, and 1 never saw the like of that
from any hill that contained two or three plants. If once the
plants get spindling, they never bear fruit of any size or goodness.
You will see many fruit appear before any one begins to swell. If
a solitary one should begin to swell before the vines have got to
any extent, pinch it off ; for, if left on, it will generally prevent the
plant from bearing any more. There should be three or four upon
a plant beginning to swell together, or about the same time, in
order to encourage you to expect a fine crop. Melons are very
frequently raised, as pines sometimes are, in pits, with foundations
for frames built upon the ground, or going a little way beneath the
top of the ground. Upon these walls a wooden coping is fixed, and
across this coping the lights slide up and down. These, are very con-
venient places for melons ; but as they do not enter into the plan of
my garden, it would be useless to take up the time of the reader with
a more particular description of them. When the fruit of the melon
is perceived to be fairly swelling, a piece of glass or of tile should be
laid under each fruit to keep it out of the dirt, and, indeed, to add a
little to the heat that it would receive from the sun ; for melons re-
quire heat from the sun as well as heat from the earth; and take
what pains we will, we have never fine melons in a shady or wet
summer. As to the sorts of melons, some are finer than others, and
some come into bearing sooner than others. In speaking of sorts
I cannot do better than to take the list from the Hortus Kewensis,
written by Mr. Aiton, gardener to the King ; for surely that which
contents his Majesty, may very well content any of us. This list is as
follows : Early cantaleupe, early leopard, early Polignac, early ro~
mana, green-fleshed netted, green-fleshed rock, Basse's early rock,
black rock, silver rock, scarlet-fleshed rock. In America, they divide
the melons into two sorts, which are wholly distinct from each other:
one they call the musk melon ; that is to say, any melon which
belongs to the tribe of those that we cultivate here, and they call
these musk melons because they have a musky smell. The other
species they call the vjater melon, which has no smell, which never
turns yellow, which is always of a deep green, in the inside of which,
instead of being a fleshy pulp, is a sort of pink-coloured snow,
which melts in the mouth. This melon very frequently weighs
from twenty to forty pounds, and is not deemed much of a fruit
V.] MINT, MISHROOM. \\\
unless it weigh fifteen or sixteen. I raised some of these once
very well at Motley from seed that was brought from Malta. They
are a totally different thing from the other tribe; ami being so
much better, I have often wondered that, where people have great
space under glass, and great heat at command, they do not raise
them in England. There is only one fine musk melon that I ever
MW »n America; which is called the citron melon, having the flesh
nearly white and being of the shape of a lemon. The mode of cul-
tivating the water-melon is the same as that of cultivating the
other; but it requires more room. If you wish to save the seed of
melons, you must take it out when you eat the fruit, and do with it
precisely as is directed in the case of the cucumber seed : but to
have the seed true to its kind, it must not be saved on a spot near
to that in which grow, and have blowed, cucumbers, squashes,
pumpkins, or anything of that sort ; nor on a spot where any other
sort of melon has been in bloom at the same time. The greatest
possible care must be taken in this respect, or you will have fruit
quite different from that which you expect.
163. MINT. — There are two sorts : one is of a darker green
than the other : the former is called pepper-mint, and is generally
used for distilling to make mint water : the latter, which is called
spear-mint, is used for the table in many ways. The French snip
a little into their salads ; we boil a bunch amongst green peas, to
which it gives a pleasant flavour ; chopped up small, and put along
with sugar, into vinegar, we use it as a sauce for roasted lamb;
and a very pleasant sauce it is. Mint may be propagated from
seed ; but a few bits of its roots will spread into a bed in a year.
To have it in winter, preserve it precisely like marjoram (which
see), and instead of chopping it for sauce, crumble it between
your fingers.
164. MUSHROOM. — This is one of a numerous tribe of fun-
guses ; but it is the only one that is cultivated for culinary purposes,
and this one is scarcely ever seen in any gardens but those of no-
blemen, or gentlemen of fortune. In their gardens it is cultivated
in order to be had at all times of the year, for everybody knows,
that in most parts of England, it comes up spontaneously in the
meadows and elsewhere. It is cultivated nohow but in hot-beds j
but there in two distinct ways. The first is on hot-beds out of doors,
and the hot-bed is made and managed in the manner that I will
now describe. Take stable dung that is not fresh and fiery, or if
112 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAI\
you have no other, mix with it an equal quantity of old hot-bed
lining, throw it together in a long ridge, where rains will not fall
on it to ferment, and in about three weeks it will be ready for use.
Then take and mark out the outline of the base of your bed, just as
I directed in my instructions about hot-beds in Chapter III. ; but
as this one is to go up in a sloping direction on both sides like the
roof of a house, you need not have the upright stakes nor the edge-
boards that I there recommended. Three or four feet will be quite
wide enough. The length you regulate according to the quantity
of mushrooms that you wish to grow. Begin then with your bed,
shaking the dung up well, and if it be long, beating it well, just as
in the case of the cucumber-bed, only keep drawing it in by degrees
till vou have it in the shape of the roof of a house : beat it on the
top as vou carry it up, but particularly beat it at the sides, for there
you will want it to be perfectly even and firm. Having finished it,
you will guard it from rains and from the sun by covering it over with
long straw, old thatch, or mats ; for it must be neither too wet nor too
dry. Let it remain in this way a week, or till you find, by forcing
your fore-finger down into it, that the heat is moderate. Then put
on a layer of fresh mould to about an inch thick. In this you
will stick little pieces of spawn of mushrooms at about eight
inches apart every way. Cover over these with mould to about
another inch in thickness, and pat it down nicely with a spade ;
and still keep the covering of straw or matting over the whole bed
as before, for neither wet not sun must get to it immoderately.
Success now greatly depends on the proper moisture of the bed.
If in summer-time, take off the covering now and then to admit of
gentle showers falling on it ; or, if in a very dry season, water now
and then. But if in winter, keep out the cold at all times. The
irt'doors method of cultivating mushrooms was introduced to this
country from Germany. It is usually by means of a small house
in anv awkward or out-of-the-way corner of the garden, about ten
or twelve feet wide and twenty or thirty feet long. With a fire-
place on the outside of one end, and a flue going from it straight
down under the middle of the floor of the house and back again
to the fire-place ; with one door, and two or three small windows,
which latter are generally kept shut close with unglazed shutters.
All along the two sides of this house are shelves arranged in three
tiers, one close to the bottom, another at about three feet up, and
another at about «ix feet up, and these shelves are about three feet
V.] MUSHROOM. 113
in breadth, made of good stout plank, with a front board of nine or
ten inches depth to keep in the dung and the earth. Whoever has
seen the berths in a barraek-rooni, or in the state-room of a ship,
has seen precisely what the shelves of a German mushroom-house
are. These shelves are to be filled with the dung or compost in
which you are to plant your mushroom spawn, and, as to preparing
compost, you proceed in this manner: take a quantity of fresh
horse-dung, with as little long litter as possible; the less the
better ; that has not been exposed to wet, and that has not fer-
mented ; mix it with a fourth part of fresh mould, and, if vou can,
get the scrapings of a horse-track of a mill-house of any sort ; mix
all well together, and, in your shelves, or in as many of them as
you mean to put to work at once, put a layer six inches thick of
this mixture, beating it down as hard as you can with a wooden
bat. This will reduce it down to the thinness of four inches, or
less. Then put in another layer, rather less thick, and beat that
down in the same way ; observing that, towards the wall at the
back part of your shelf, you can afford to increase the thick-
ness of your layers, as there is the wall to support them ; and
the thicker you make these layers, the stronger will be the bed.
Having done this, observe the fermentation from day to day, as
it goes on, and when it is palpably on the decline, make a parcel
of holes in the compost at from six to nine inches asunder, and
put in the spawn ; and then cover it over with a covering of mould
about an inch thick. Water may be given out of a very fine-
rosed watering-pot, when the weather is very warm, and then
it is recommended to scatter a little straw over first, and water
on that, the mushroom being inclined to rot from any over quant
tity of moisture, however little. These beds are not generally of
long duration, but particularly those in the shelves. From eight
to twelve weeks may be looked upon as a good duration, and there-
fore, to have mushrooms continually, there must be renewals of
the beds, in the house and out of the house; but a very little
attention brings it to a regular system in the in-door method.
The times when the vegetation of this fungus is most successful,
are, the spring and fall, as with every vegetable. To procure
spawn, you need only apply to the seedsmen, almost all of whom
sell it ; but you may procure it and propagate it yourself, by be-
stowing a little care and attention on it. Dig up, in August or
September, a parcel of mushrooms, taking a good three or four
i
114 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
handfuls of the earth immediately round them ; you will find a
quantity of small bulbs, as it were, of mushrooms, and of stuff like
coarse thread. Put this in ridges on an old cucumber bed, and
keep off heavy rains, and when you find that these have extended
themselves, and are formed into a quantity of mouldy-looking
flakes, take them up and keep them in any dry place till you want
them, when you plant little pieces of the size of the top of your
thumb, or a little bigger. There is some danger of mistaking
other funguses (and less innocent ones) for mushrooms, therefore,
observe that the mushroom comes up precisely in the form of a
little round white button, which gradually opens itself, till, if per-
mitted to stand long enough, it becomes almost flat on the top.
It is white everywhere but on the under side of the crown, which is
of a pale red, becoming of a brownish colour as it advances in age.
I cannot conclude without observing that some of these funguses
are deemed extremely unwholesome ; some people even think
them poisonous, and that the mushroom is only the hast noxious.
J once ate about three spoonsful at table at Mr. Timothy Brown's
at Peckham, which had been cooked, I suppose, in the usual way ;
but I had not long eaten them before my whole body, face, hands
and all, was covered with red spots or pimples, and to such a
degree, and coming on so fast, that the doctor who attended the
family was sent for. He thought nothing of it, gave me a little
draught of some sort, and the pimples went away j but I attri-
buted it then to the mushrooms. The next year, I had mushrooms
in my own garden at Botley, and I determined to try the experi-
ment whether they would have the same effect again ; but, not
liking to run any risk, 1 took only a tea-spoonful, or rather a
French coffee-spoonful, which is larger than a common tea-spoon.
They had just the same effect, both as to sensation and outward
appearance ! From that day to this 1 have never touched mush-
rooms, for I conclude that there must be something poisonous in
that which will so quickly produce the effects that I have do-
scribed, and on a healthy and hale body like mine; and, therefore,
1 do not advise any one to cultivate these things.
16"). MUSTARD. — There is ;i white- seeded sort and a uritwH-
seeded. The white mustard is used in sutadx along with the cress,
or pejiper-grass, and is sowed and cultivated in the same wav
(see Ckkss). The black is that which t he flour is made of for
table-use. It is sowed in rows at two feet apart early in the
v.] n \si in i ir.u, onion. 115
spring. The plants ought to be thinned to lour or five inches
apart. Good tillage between the rows is necessary. The seed
will be ripe in July, and then the stalks should be cut oft, and,
when quite dry, the seed threshed out, and put by for use.
166. NASTURTIUM .— An annual plant, with a hall-red half-
yellow flower, which has an offensive smell ; but it bears a seed
enveloped in a fleshy pod, and that pod, taken before the seed
becomes ripe, is used as a thing to pickle. The seed should be
sowed very early in the spring. The plants should have pretty
long bushy sticks put to them ; and four or five of them will bear
a great quantity of pods. They will grow in almost any ground ;
but the better the ground the fewer of them are necessary.
167. ONION. — This is one of the main vegetables. Its uses
are many, and they are all well known. The modes of cultivation
for crop are various. Four I shall mention, and by either a good
crop may be raised. Sow early in March. Let the ground be
rich, but not from fresh dung. Make the ground very fine ; make
the rows a foot apart, and scatter the seed thinly along a drill two
inches deep. Then fill in the drills ; and then press the earth down
upon the seed by treading the ground all over. Then give the
ground a very slight smoothing over with a rake. When the plants
get to be three inches high, thin them to four inches, or to eight
inches, if you wish to have very large onions. Keep the ground
clear of weeds by hoeing ; but do not hoe deep, nor raise earth
about the plants; for these make them run to neck and not to
bulb. When the tips of the leaves begin to be brown, bend down
the necks, so that the leaves lie flat with the ground. When the
leaves are nearly dead, pull up the onions, and lay them to dry, in
order to be put away for winter use. Some persons, instead of
sowing the onions all along the drill, drop four or five seeds at
every six or seven inches distance ; and leave the onions to grow
thus, in clumps ; and this is not a bad way ; for they will squeeze
each other out. They will not be large; but they will be ripe
earliei', and will not run to neck. The third mode of cultivation
is as follows : sow the onions any time between mid-May and
mid-June, in drills six inches apart, and put the seed Very thick
along the drills. Let all the plants stand, and they will get to
be about as big round as the top of your little-finger. Then the
haves will get yellow, and, when that is the case, pull up the
onions and lay them on a board, till the sun have withered up the
i2
116 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
leaves. Then take these diminutive onions, put them in a bag,
and hang them up in a dry place till spring, taking the biggest for
pickles. As soon as the frost is gone, and the ground dry, plant
out these onions in good and fine ground, in rows a foot apart.
Make, not drills, but little marks along the ground; and put the
onions at six or eight inches apart. Do not cover them with the
earth ; but just p7'ess them down iipon the mark with your thumb
and fore-finger. The ground ought to be trodden and slightly
raked again before you make the marks ; for no earth should rise
up about the plants. Proceed after this as with sowed onions j
onlv ohserve, that, if any should be running up to seed, you must
twist down the neck as soon as you perceive it. But, observe this :
the shorter the time that these onions have been in the ground the
vear before, the less likely will they he to run to seed. This is the
sure way of having a large and early crop of onions. The fourth
method is one that is now generally used by the market gardeners
round London ; and it is one by which they obtain prodigious
crops. From the middle to the latter end of the month of August
they sow onions, broadcast in beds and thickly, and let them stand
the winter, which they will do tolerably well unless snow or water
lay much upon them. Having the ground prepared as for the first
method mentioned above ; that is, having it in good tilth, finely
broken and rich, you begin planting out in the month of March.
The plants may be put in rows, because in this manner they are
much more easily hoed ; but the thing to attend to most in this
work is, to have the roots only of the plants buried ; not the
little bulb (for small as the onion is, there will be a little white
bulb), but merely the fibres, fastened in the ground ; and any man
who has seen this work done, must have, observed that, unless the
ground be made very fine indeed, it is impossible to proceed with
any certainty in this delicate operation. The labourers in the
market gardens of this neighbourhood (Kensington) do this work
with wonderful rapidity and exactness ; and it is common to see
five or six acres in a piece all planted in this manner. There will
be two or three hoeings wanted according to the season and the
state of the ground, but they should not be deep. Some of the
plants will pipe, or run to seed, and these should either have the
pipes pulled off or twisted down. Preserving onions is an easy
matter. Frost never hurts them, unless you mure them during the
time that they are frozen. Any dry, airy place will therefore do.
V.] JWRSLEY. 117
They should not be kept in a warm place ; for they will heat and
grow. The neatest way is to tie them up in ropes ; that is to say,
to tie them round sticks, or straight straw, with matting. For
seed; pick out the finest onions, and plant them out in rich land, in
the spring. To grow this seed upon a large scale, plough the
land into four-feet ridges, lay plenty of dung along the furrows,
plough the ground hack over the dung, mitten the top of the ridge
a little, and put along, on the top of the ridge, two rows of onions,
the rows seven inches apart, and the onions seven inches apart in
the rows. When the weeds come, hoe the tops of the ridges with
a small hoe, and plough first from and then to the ridges, two or
three times, at the distance of two or three weeks. When the seed
is ripe, cut off the heads and collect them in such a way as not
to scatter the seed. Lay them on cloths in the sun till dry as dust;
and then thresh out the seed, winnow it, and put it away. The seed
will be dead ripe in August, and turnips or early York cabbages, or
even Kidney dwarf beans, may follow upon the same ground the
same year. In a garden there always ought to be a crop to suc-
ceed seed-onions the same summer. There are several sorts of
onions, of which the red is the hardiest and the hottest, and the
white the tenderest and the mildest, and the best for pickling
The straw-coloured sort is, perhaps, the best for a main crop.
168. PARSLEY. — Known to every human being to bear its
seed the second year, and, after that, to die away. It may be
sowed at any season when the frost is out of the ground. The
best way is to sow it in spring, and in very clean ground; because
the seed lies long in the ground, and, if the ground be foul, the
weeds choke the plants at their coming up. A bed of six feet
long and four wide, the seeds sowed in drills at eight inches apart,
is enough for any family in the world. This would be enough
about parsley ; but people want it all the year round. There are
some winters that will destroy it completely if it be wholly unpro-
tected, and there are no means of preserving it dry in the manner
which has been directed for other herbs. Therefore, if you per-
ceive sharp weather approaching, lay some peas-haulm or straw,
not very thickly, over the bed, and do not take it off until after the
thaw has completely taken place. The rotting of vegetables is
occasioned by thawing in the light, more than by the frost.
When the thaw has completely taken place, the peas-haulm or the
straw may be taken away, and, by these means, parsley may be
118 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
safely kept through any winter that we have in England ; for it
can be thus kept even in America, where the frost goes down into
the ground full four feet.
169. PARSNIP. — As to the season of sowing, sort of land,
preparation of ground, distances, and cultivation and tillage, pre-
cisely the same as the carrot. But, as to preservation during
winter, and for spring use, the Parsnip stands all frost without
injury, and even with benefit. So that, all you want is to put up
for winter as many as you are likely to want during a hard frost,
and these you may put up in the same manner as directed for
carrots and beets. If the parsnips be to stand out in the ground
all the winter, the greens should not be cut off in the fall. To
save the seed of the parsnip, let four or five of the plants stand
through the next summer, or remove them to a more convenient
spot. They will bear a great quantity of seed. When it turns
ripe, cut the seed stalk off, lay it upon a cloth in the sun until
perfectlv dry ; then take off the seed, put it in a paper bag, and
put it in a very dry place : it keeps well for only one year.
170. PEA. — This is one of those vegetables which all people
like. From the greatest to the smallest of gardens, we alwavs find
peas, not to mention the thousands of acres which are grown in
fields for the purpose of being eaten by the gavdenless people of
the towns. Where gardening is carried on upon a roval, or almost
royal scale, peas are raised bv means of artificial heat, in order to
have them here at the same time that they have them in Portugal,
which is in the months of December and January. Beneath this
royal state, however, the next thing is to have them in the natural
ground as early as possible ; and that may be sometimes by the
middle of Mav, and hardly ever later than about the first week of
June. The late King, George the Third, reigned so long, that his
birth-day formed a sort of season with gardeners ; and, ever since
I became a man, I can recollect that it was alwavs deemed rather
a sign of bad gardening if there were not green peas in the gar-
den fit to gather on the fourth of June. It is curious, that green
peas are to be had as early in Long Island, and in the sea-board
part of the state of New Jersey, as in England, though not sowed
there, observe, until very late in April, while ours, to be very early,
must be sowed in the month of December or January. It is still
more curious, that, such is the effect of habit and tradition, that,
even when I was last in America (1810), people talked just as
V.] J'KA. 11!)
familiarly as In England about having green peas on the K'nu/'s
liirth-ilmi, and were just as ambitious for accomplishing the ob-
ject; and ( remember a gentleman who bad been a republican
Officer during the Revolutionary War, who told me that be always
got in bis garden green peas fit to eat on old Uncle Georyea
h'trt It-day. This, however, is the general season for the coming in
of green peas in England ; but, to have them at this season, the
verv earliest sort must be sowed; they must be sowed, too, in
November, or as soon after as the weather will permit, and they must
be sowed on the south side of a wall, or of a very close and warm
hedge, the ground not being wet in its nature by any means. The
frosts will be very apt to cut them off, and, if the weather be mild,
they will be apt to get so forward as to be cut off in January or
February. They should, therefore, be kept earthed up a little on
both sides ; and, if hard frosts approach, they should be covered
with peas-haulm or straw, and these should be taken off as soon
as the thaw has completely taken place. It will not do to place
the row of peas nearer than about four feet distance from the
wall, because they grow high, and they would interfere with, and
do injury to, the fruit trees. Three or four rows of the very
earliest peas might be in the border e, on the south side of the
wall. Some more rows might be in the outer garder c, on the
south side of the wall there. The whole of these borders need not
be devoted to this purpose, but only such part of them as would
be deemed requisite. A second sowing should take place a month
or six weeks after the first ; but this mav take place across the
plat b or (j. Sow again early in March, and then once in a
month or three weeks, until the end of May. Too many should
not be sowed at a time, and less of the tall sorts than of the low
sorts. The manner of sowing peas is the same in all cases. You
make a drill with a hoe, three inches deep, in ground as rich as
you can make it, sew the peas along not too thick, put back upon
them the earth that came out of the drill, and tread it down with
your feet pretty nearly as bard as you can, and then, especially in
winter-time, keep a sharp look-out after the mice. When the
peas come up, you ought, in all cases, to hoe the ground nicely
about them, and draw a little earth to them even immediately,
drawing up more and more earth on each side as the plants
advance in height, until you have, at last, a little ridge, the top of
which would be six or seven inches above the level of the ground;
120 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP-
this not only keeps them upright, but supplies them with food for
roots that will shoot out of the stems of the plants. Peas must
have sticks, and these sticks must be proportioned to the height
which the sorts respectively generally attain. For the early-frame
pea, two feet and a half, or three feet, above the ground, is suffi-
cient j for the next in height, four or five feet. For the tall
sorts, from six to eight, and even nine feet. The distances at
which the rows are to be sowed, must be somewhat in pro-
portion to these heights, the smaller peas may stand at three
feet apart, but the taller ones, and especially the tall ones
of all, ought to be at six or seven feet apart at the least.
You get nothing by crowding them, nor do you get any-
thing by sowing double instead of single rows of peas. If
you try it, you will find that a single plant standing out
away from all others, will produce more fruit than any six
plants standing in a common single row, though the soil be the
same, and though the stick be of the same height. This is enough
to convince any one of the mischievous effects of crowding. If
you plant the taller peas at distances too close, or indeed any
peas, the rows shade one another ; there will be no fruit except
just at the top, that part of the plant which should bear early will
not bear at all, those that come at top will be pods only about half
full ; and if you plant tall peas so close, and with sticks so short
as to cause the wet to bend the heads of the plants down, vou will
literally have no fruit at all, a thing which I have seen take place
a hundred times in my life-time. My gardener had once sowed,
while I was from home, a piece of garden with the tall marrowfat
pea, and had put the rows at about three feet apart. 1 saw them
just after they came up. The ground was such as was verv good,
and which I knew would send the peas up very high ; 1 told him
to take his hoe and cut up every other row ; but they looked so fine
and he was so obstinate, that I let them remain, and made him
sow some more at seven feet apart verv near to the same place,
telling him that there never could be a pea there, and that if it so
turned out, never to attempt to have his own way again. Both
the patches of peas were sticked in due time, they both grew very
fine and lofty ; but his patch began to get together at the top, and
just about the time that the pods were an inch long, there came a
heavy rain, smashed the whole of them down into one mass, and
there never was a single pea gathered from the patch, while the
V.] PENNYROYAL, rOTATO. 121
other patch, the single rows of which were seven feet apart, produced
an uncommonly fine and lasting crop. The destroyed patch of peas
was however of precious advantage ; for it made me the master of
my gardener, a thing that happens to very few owners of garden*.
A sufficient distance is one of the greatest things in the raising of
peas, whether they he sticked or whether they be not; and they
never ought to be sowed too thickly in the row. I never tried it,
but 1 verily believe that a row of peas, each plant being at two or
three inches distance from the other, would bear a greater crop
than if sowed in the usual way. At any rate, never sow too thick,
on any account, at any time of the year. As to so?'ts of peas, the
earliest is the early-frame, then comes the early -char Hon, then
the blue-prussian and the hotspur, then the dwarf -marrowfat,
then the tall-marrowfat, then knight's pea. There are several
others, but here are quite enough for any garden in the world. If
all these tall sorts be sowed in March, and some more of them
again in April, not too many at a time, they will come in one
after another, and will keep up a regular succession until about
the latter end of .July, or even later. After this all peas become
mildewed, and their fruit good for very little. As to saving the
seed of peas, it is impossible to do it well in a kitchen-garden,
where you must alvvavs have more than one sort of pea in bloom
at the same time. If you be very curious about this matter, you
must sow somewhere in the corner of a field, and not gather any of
the peas to eat; but let them all stand to ripen. When ripe, they
are to be threshed out and put by in a dry place. Peas want no
watering, but there should be a good digging between the rows
jBflt about the time that the bloom begins to appear, for that fur-
nishes new food to the roots at the time when it is most wanted.
Great care must be taken to keep slugs and snails away from peas ;
for if they get amongst them and are let alone for a very little
while, they bite the whole off, and they never sprout again to any
good purpose.
171. PENNYROYAL. — A medicinal herb, that is perennial.
It is also used for some few culinary purposes. A little patch a
foot square, in the herb bed, is quite sufficient. You must keep
this patch well cut off round the edges ; for one root, if left alone
for a summer, will extend over two or three yards square in good
ground.
172. POTATO. — I am going to speak here of this vegetable,
122 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP*
as a thing to be used merely in company with meat ; and not to
be used as a substitute for bread, having proved, in various parts
of my writings, and proved it beyond all contradiction, that, as a
substitute for bread, it is the most wasteful thing that can possi-
bly be used. It has, too, now been acknowledged by various
writers, and it has been established by evidence taken before
Committees of the House of Commons, that to raise potatoes
for the purpose of being used instead of bread, is a thing
mischievous to the nation. As a substitute for bread, there-
fore, I speak not of the fruit of this plant. As food for cattle or
pigs, I know it to be inferior to cabbages, to Swedish turnips, to
mangel-wurzel, and to be much more expensive, weight for weight,
than either of those articles. I know of no animal that will even
live for any length of time upon uncooked potatoes, while I know
that sheep and horned cattle will live, and even fat, to a certain
extent, upon either cabbages, mangel-wurzel, or Swedish turnips;
and while 1 know that pigs will live and thrive upon either of these
articles, neither of which, weight for weight, demand half the expense
that the potatoes demand. As a mere vegetable or sauce, as the
countrv people call it, it does very well to qualify the effects of fat
meat, or to assist in the swallowing of quantities of butter. There
appears to be nothing unwholesome about it, and when the sort is
good, it is preferred by many people to some other vegetables of
the coarser kind ; and though I never eat of it myself, finding so
many other things far preferable to it, I think it right to give direc-
tions for the cultivation of the plant upon a scale suitable to a
gentleman's garden. There are an infinite variety of sorts ; the skin
of some of which is red, that of others of a whitish -yellow colour :
the first are denominated red potatoes, and the latter white. The red
potatoes are of the coarser kinds, as are also several of the white.
Those who plant these things in gardens and for their own use,
will not plant the coarse ones. I shall speak of only three sorts.
First, of a little round white potato, which comes very early, or
rather, is but a very short time in coming to perfection. The
second sort are called tadies-fnr/ers, being long and about an inch
through when in their usual full size, and these also are white.
The other sort are called kidney-potatoes, which grow to a pretty
large size, are flat, and very much in the shape of a kidney. This is
the sort which is planted for the main crop to be preserved dining
the winter. They have generally a small part at one end of them
V.] POTATO. ] 23
of a reddish purple colour, which is the sign of their genuine quality.
As to the planting and cultivation of potatoes, thev arc, in the
!i;-l<K laid along a little trench made by the plough, then covered
with manure of some sort, and then covered over with a furrow of
earth. Some people lay the potato upon the manure, in place of
under it. In a garden the ground ought to he rich enough to bear
potatoes without any manure at all ; for the manure, though it adds
to the nuinher of potatoes, makes the size of them very various, and,
as in all other cases, gives a strong taste to the vegetable. Drills
made with a hoe three feet apart and four inches deep, the sets laid
along the drill at eight inches apart, then covered over with the
earth that came out of the drill and trod down with the foot, are
sufficient for the planting. But care must he taken to prepare
the sets properly. The potato must he cut in pieces, and there
must be but one eye, or two at most, left to each piece. A very-
small part of the pulp is necessary to be left. It is the eye only
which grows, and if a potato were peeled pretty deeply, the peel-
ing itself would do ; and it is a common practice amongst the
poorer people, to eat the potato and plant bits of the peelings; but
it has been found by the Lancashire potato-growers, that it is of
importance to reject those eyes which are seated nearest the root-
end of the potato ; that is, nearest the end which is joined on to
the root of the plant ; for they have observed, that these produce
their fruit full a fortnight later than sets cut from the middle and
point of the potato. I have never tried this experiment myself,
and therefore am not prepared to vouch for the correctness of the
statement upon my own observation : but I can vouch for this
fact, that potatoes are grown to perfection by the Lancashire
people, and therefore I would pay attention to any of their sug-
gestions in this matter. As to the cultivation, as soon as the plants
are up, and are three inches high, the whole of the ground should
be flat -hoed, and should be carefully moved close to the stems of
the plants ; hut do no more than this for the early crop, for,
though earthing-up is required to give a full crop, it certainly
retards it; and, as your object now is to have some potatoes
without regard to quantity, it is best to make a little sacrifice
here. For your later crops, when the plants get to be seven
or eight inches high, thev should have earth drawn up to their
stems with a hoe, going along the interval and drawing the
earth from the middle to form little ridges about four inches
124 KITCHEN- GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
high. As the plants advance in height, more earth should be
drawn up to them, and when they are about a foot high above the
top of the ridge, the intervals should be well dug with a spade,
and the earth well broken. After this, a little more earth should
be drawn up to the plants, the heads of which would begin to fall
down and spread about, and all that will be wanted in future, will
be to pull out any weeds that appear. In the fall of the year the
leaves will drop off and the haulm will die ; and when this death
of the haulm takes place, the potatoes should be dug up. I am
now speaking of the kidney potatoes which are to be kept for win-
ter use ; and they should not be planted too early ; because they will
be ripe too early in the fall, and will not keep so well through the
winter, and until the spring. The last week in April, or the first or
even the second week in May, is quite soon enough to plant. The
erop will then be fit to take up in the latter end of October, which
is quite soon enough. When taken up, they should, if the weather
will permit, be suffered to dry in the sun : all the dirt should be
rubbed clean from them ; thev should then be placed in a cellar,
in a barn, or in some place to which no frost can approach : if you
can ascertain the degree of warmth just necessary to keep a baby
from perishing from cold, you know precisely the precautions re-
quired to preserve a potato above-ground ; for, under-ground,
thev will lie safe and sound during the whole winter, if placed
individuallv, if the frost do not actually reach them. I know of
no other seed or root; I know of no apple even; I know of no
loaved cabbage, that will not bear freezing, if covered over with
the ground. I have, this year, had a piece of ground in which
potatoes (planted by my predecessor) grew last year, covered over
twentv times by the overflowings of the Thames, and when this
piece of ground was dug up in the spring, the potatoes were as
sound and as fresh as ever. We did not perceive one single rot-
ten potato in the whole piece. There was a great quantity, and
the men who dug the ground took them home to eat. But if above-
ground, your care must be great, especially if the heap be consi-
derable. There must be no rotten ones, and no cut or broken
ones. The heap may ferment, and then rottenness will come :
von must therefore be careful to turn it over frequently and pick
out every thing approaching towards rottenness. Potatoes are
frequently kept in heaps formed in a conical shape on the ground,
and covered over with straw and earth ; but this is a thing that
V.] POTATO. 1 25
cannot be required in a case like that which I have in view. The
ladies-fingers, which are certainly more delicate in taste than the
kidney-potatoes, may be planted at the same time, and treated in
the same manner ; and they will be better than the larger potatoes
all through the winter, though the crop will not be so large. Some
of these, however, if planted early in March, will be very good for
use from the end of June to the latter end of the summer. As to
the first sort, the little round white early potatoes, they may be
raised so as to be fit to eat in June, and even earlier. This sort
of potato has no blossom. It is a small round white potato, the
leaf of which is of a pale green, very thin, very smooth, and nearly
of the shape and size of the inside of a middle-sized lemon cut
asunder longways. This potato, if planted with other sorts in
March or April, will be ripe six weeks sooner than any other sort.
The ladies-fingers come much quicker than the kidneys ; but
the early potato comes much quicker still. If you once get this
sort, and wish to keep it true, you must take care that no other
sort grow near it j for potatoes mix the breed more readily than any
than any thing else, though in this case there be no bloom. It is
very difficult, for this reason, to get this sort true and unmixed.
If these potatoes be planted early in March, or late in February,
it should be in warm and dry ground ; and you must take care to
cover the ground where they are planted with litter or straw, if you
perceive that frosts are approaching, for if the root be once frosted,
it immediately becomes water. You may dig up some of these
potatoes in June as big as walnuts or bigger. They are not ripe
in June ; but they may be ripe by the latter end of July ; they in-
crease in size as as you go on, and the quantity need not be large,
for, by the time these are exhausted, the ladies-fingers come in for
use. A small quantity will be enough for seed for the next vear.
You should pick out five or six of the truest plants to stand for
seed ; when the baulm dies, take up the roots ; put them by care-
fully, and preserve them till spring. If you wish to have potatoes
still earlier than this, you must resort to artificial heat. One way
of doing this is as follows : dig out the. earth in the border oppo-
site the south side of a wall, but at four or five feet from it in order
to give room for the operations to be performed. Take the earth
out to the depth of two feet, and make a hot-bed there of good
and rather long dung, causing the bed to rise about a foot above
the level of the ground. Put part of the earth upon this bed, and
126 KITCHEN- GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
lay the rest as a bank on each side of it. Give the heel a little time
to heat and to sink, and have the earth upon the bed about eight
or nine inches deep. Plant the sets of potatoes in the earth upon
this bed, and about six inches down into that earth. The sets may
be put in at about a foot apart, and then vou may sow all over the
bed radishes, onions, and lettuces. These will come up immedi-
ately, and the management of the bed is this. In the first place,
you put hoops across it, leaving about eighteen inches between
every two hoops ; then tie straight and smooth sticks, long-
ways of the bed upon the hoops; then have mats good and
sound, to lay over the hoops ; and the bed ought to be of the
width that a mat will completely cover. At all times, when the
radishes will bear the open air, that is to say, when there is no
frost, the mats ought to be off in the day-time ; and, if it be extra-
ordinarily warm for the season, and you are sure that no frost will
come in the night, they may be off in the night ; for, if the plants
be drawn up, the radishes, lettuces, and onions, will come to
nothing, and the potatoes will be spindling and will not produce.
By the time that the radishes have been all drawn and used, the
potatoes will have come up, and will have attained the height of
six or seven inches : the young onions will have been used also,
and the lettuce plants taken away and planted out in the open
ground ; so that the potatoes only will remain, and these will be
fit for use in May, and perhaps early in May. Under the head
of radishes, I shall have to speak of a mode of getting potatoes
still earlier than this, though perhaps this is as early as any one
need wish for. The bed need not be long. From twelve to
twenty feet is perhaps enough for any family. After the potatoes
are used, the earth should be drawn off the bed, the dung taken
out, and applied to the manuring of the garden, the earth put back
again to the place whence it was dug out, and the ground applied
to the producing of some crop for the latter end of the Summer.
Potatoes mav be raised from seed, that is to sav, from the round
pods that grow upon the haulm ; and from these seeds new varie-
ties come, as in the case of the strawberry and many other
things. The pods should be gathered when dead ripe. The pods
should he squeezed to pieces, the seed separated from the pulp,
made very dry, kept dry till April or early in May. They should
be sowed in little drills, two feet asunder, the plants thinned out to
a foot apart, they should he cultivated like other potatoes, and
V.] l'U.Ml'KIN, RADISH. 127
they will produce little roots lit to plant out for a crop next
spring* Few people take the pains to do this, the Borts being
already as numerous as the stones of the pavement of a large eitv.
172, PUMPKIN. — A thing little used in England, hut of great
use in hot eouutries. They are of various sorts, the fruit of some
of whieh are of immense size, and the fruit of others in verv
common use in the making of pies, where however thev require
the assistance of cream, sugar, nutmeg, and other spices; hut,
when so prepared) arc very pleasant things. They are by no
means had cattle food, especially for milch cows, during two
months in the fall of the year ; and I have no doubt that they
would produce twenty ton weight upon an acre of land. The
time for planting them in the natural ground is the middle of May.
They are not so sensible of frost as the cucumber. They will be
up in the first week of June, and you have nothing to do but to
keep the ground clear of weeds. The best way is to put three or
four seeds in a clump, and put the clumps at ten or twelve feet
apart. The runners should have a proper direction given to them,
should be fastened down to the ground with pegs at every two or
three feet, and the runners will then send new roots down into the
ground. You know when the pumpkins are ripe by their turning
yellow, and striped, and when the leaves begin to die. If you wish
to save the seed, you must let the pumpkin be quite ripe, and then
manage the seed as in the case of the cucumber. Different sorts
must not grow near one another, if they do, they will mix.
174. PCRSLAXE. — A mischievous weed, eaten by Frenchmen
and pigs when they can get nothing else. Both use it in salad,
that is to say, raw.
17o. RADISH. — There are two distinct species of radishes, the
tojj-rooted, and the turnip -rooted. Of the latter, there are red and
white. The former are all red; some, however, of a deeper dye
than others. The great thing in the case of radishes is, to have
them early in the Spring, and, for this purpose, the tap-rooted
kinds only are used, as they come quicker than others. In the
open natural ground, radishes are sowed in the hitter end of
February, or early in March, and a few once a fortnight, until the
beginning of May. If sowed later than that, thev are hot and
disagreeable, and very few people care for them. The turnip-
1 noted sorts should he of the latest sowings ; hut even thev be-
come hot, if sowed after the fust oi' May. I shall hardly prevail
128 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
upon anybody to sow radishes in little drills as directed for cab-
bages ; but that is the best way ; and, as soon as they are up,
they should be thinned to an inch apart ; for, if thicker, you gain
nothing in point of quantity, and you lose in point of quickness in
coming. They should be sowed in shallow drills six inches apart,
thinned to an inch apart in the drill as soon as they come up, and
the ground should be kept clear of weeds by a little hoe. We
have seen how radishes may be had earlv by sowing them upon a
potato-bed ; if you wish to have them still earlier, you must make
a bed on purpose, and cover it with a frame and glass. The
manner of making a hot-bed has been described in Chapter III.
A bed for radishes, made as early as December, if you like, need
not be so strong as a bed for early cucumbers. Proceed, in the
making of the bed, in just the same manner as directed for cucum-
bers ; but you need not make the bed to be above three feet high.
You must let the heat be gone off more in this case than in the
case of cucumbers, before you put on the mould; and before you
put on the mould for radishes, take all the lights off the bed for a
whole day, unless in case of severe frosts, snow or rain. Put the
mould on eight inches deep ; or, if it be nine inches, it is better
still. The mould should be made very fine, and it should be rich
without dung. There is no room to spare in a hot -bed, and,
therefore, you should make the drills with your finger about
two inches apart, and put the seed along in the drills in a very
even manner. When the plants come up, thin them to an inch
apart. That will give you seventy-two radishes ; that is to sav,
six dozen upon every square foot; and, if your frame be twelve
feet long and four feet wide, this hot-bed will give you two hun-
dred and eighty-eight bunches, a dozen in a bunch. Now mind,
your success will depend upon two things. Keeping out frost, and
giving all the air that you can possibly give, without letting in the
frost. If it be fine open weather, whether wet or dry, the lights
should be taken entirely off during the day ; and even in sharpish
weather there should be plenty of air given in the day-time. In
open weather, there should be air given by night as well as by day ;
and the lights should be entirely off in the day-time, except in frosty
weather, or during very heavy rains. For, if your radishes be drawn
up, they will come to nothing; and they will be drawn up unless they
have plenty of air. The heat of the bed will, in time, diminish so
much as to let in the frost in a severe winter. In such weather, there-
V.J RADISH. 1J«J
lore, you must liiie the bed in the same manner u is directed tor
encumbers. As to covering, in sharpish weather, a single mat
over the glass will do. It seldom happens that more than a double
mat eould be required for a radish-bed; but, if the bed become
cool, there must be covering sufficient to keep out the frost; this
is to remain on, however, for as short a time as possible ; and,
even during a hard frost, if the sun come out, the lights should
be taken off during the time that the sun is within two hours of its
highest pitch ; for, in this country, it never, I believe, freezes in the
sun, and to keep away frost is all that you require in the way of
covering. Two square feet, or four at most, in one corner of the
frame, will give you mustard and cress a plenty for salads, if vou
take care to make repeated sowings in proper time. Jn this bed early-
potatoes may be planted in the manner directed for the potato-
bed mentioned under the head of the potato. A few young onions
may be raised here also to be eaten green ; and also some lettuce-
plants, to be removed about the time that the radishes are all
drawn. In just the same way, and with a bed of about the same
strength, early carrots may be raised. Some people like them,
and the trouble is a great deal less than any one would imagine,
seeing that it requires so many words to explain the method of
doing the thing. Now, as to the sorts of radishes for the hot- bed,
there are two, the early scarlet, and the early short-top : the co-
lour of the former is indicated by its name, that of the latter is
between a red and a purple. Some tastes prefer one sort and
some the other. I know no difference in the flavour : the scarlet is
the most pleasing to the eye, and is therefore the sort that market
gardeners cultivate ; but the short-top is the earliest ; that is to sav,
the quickest in coming to perfection ; or, at least, i think so ; for 1
never actually tried one against the other; and thev certainly eat
more crisp than the scarlet. The finest radish of all for the
flavour, as well as for crispness, is called the salmon-radish, from
its colour being precisely that of salmon when in season ; but it
does not come so quickly as the other two sorts. If vou have the
early radishes in beds, the salmon-radish ought to be the first to
sow in the open ground. With regard to the turnip-rooted sorts
they are all greatly inferior, in point of flavour, to the tap-rooted •
and, as to the black Spa?iish radish, it is a coarse thing that will
stand the winter about as well as a turnip ; and is very little supe-
rior to a turnip in point of flavour. It is called a radish, and may
130 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
be had with hardly any trouble even in the winter time ; but it is,
in fact, not fit to eat. In all sowings of radishes, the greatest care
must be taken to keep away the birds, until the radishes be fairly
up, and even begin to show rough leaf; for they are extremely
fond of these seeds, and they are sowed at a season of the year
when bird-food is scarce. The sparrows will see you when you are
sowing, will know very well what you are at ; and though you bury
the seeds very safely, they will watch the first peeping up of the
head, and you will not have a single radish, if you sow in winter
or early in the spring, unless you take the proper precautions to
keep off the birds. When you take the lights off the hot-bed of
radishes, you must cover the bed over with a net. When you tilt
up the lights to give air, the birds will go in unless you hang nets
over the opening. The market-gardeners, who want great quan-
tities of radishes pretty early in the spring, sow them in the month
of January in the natural ground in warm situations. As soon as
they have sowed, they cover the beds with straw, half a foot thick.
Under this straw, the radishes, sheltered from the frost, come up ;
and then the straw is taken off in the day-time, and put on again
at night ; and this opening by day, and covering by night, is kept
up until mild weather come in March, when the radishes are fit to
take up for sale. The same may be done in a private garden ; but
the straw makes a great litter about the ground : it makes a pretty
place ugly, and the advantage is not sufficient to counterbalance the
eye-sore. Radish-seed, like all others, becomes untrue, if plants of
different sorts bloom and ripen their seed near each other. This,
therefore, must be guarded against; if you want to save seed,
refrain from drawing a few of the very earliest of your radishes ;
let them stand in the bed until the middle of March or first of
April ; then take them up, transplant them into the natural ground,
and they will well ripen their seed during the summer. Though,
observe, they will not ripen all their seed ; for, like the beet, the
buckwheat, and many other plants, they continue to blow long
after part of their seed is nearly ripe. Therefore, if you were to
stop till all the seed ripened, before you gathered any, you would
stand a chance to lose the whole ; for the birds would have eaten
the first seed long before all the flowers were off the plant. The
best way, therefore, is to pull up the plants when the first seed is
ripe ; and that gives you plenty of time to put the whole plant to
lie and wither in the sun, without which, too, it is very difficult to
V.] RHUBARB. 131
get the seed out of the pods. A very good way is, first to make
the whole plant, pods and all, dry in the sun, and then to hang the
plant up by the heels in some dry and airy place, and nil) the seed
out of the pods as you want it. In the pod, it will keep a great
many vears, perhaps twenty, and perhaps fifty; hut out of the pod
it will keep well not above two.
17»i. RAMPION. — This is the smallest seed of which we have
any knowledge. A thimble-full, properly distributed, would sow
an acre of land. It is sowed in the spring, in very fine earth. Its
roots are used in soup and salads. Its leaves are also used in salads,
one yard square is enough for any garden.
177. RAPE. — This is a field-plant for sheep; hut it is very
good to sow like white mustard, to use as salad, and it is sowed
and raised in the same wav.
17S. RHUBARB. — The dock, which is a mischievous weed,
is the native English rhubarb. Its name is found in the list of
seeds in Chapter IV., because that list is the same as the list in
my American Gardener; and, in America, dock-leaves are eaten
in the spring, and are carried to market in great quantities to be
sold. But, in this country, where the winter does not sweep every
thing green from the face of the earth, nobody thinks of cultivating
the dock, which is one of the most mischievous weeds that we.
have. In that list also is the dandelion; because that plant also
is used as greens in the spring; and, if the plants be fine, and you
lav a tile or bit of board upon them to bleach them, or tie them up
as directed for endive, they make very good salad in the month of
April ; hut, not being worth cultivation in a garden, and being a
mere weed, they have not been mentioned bv me as articles to be
cultivated. I am now to speak, not of the dock, but of the foreign
rhubarb, of which there are two sorts, the stalks of the leaves of
the one being pretty nearly red, and those of the leaves of the
other being of a greyish green colour. The latter is the finer of
the two, grows larger than the other, and the flavour is better.
The uses of the rhubarb are very well known, and it is known also
that the only part used is the inside of the stalk of the leaf, which
is fit for use towards the latter end of April, when it supplies, bv
anticipation, the place of green gooseberries in all the various
modes in which these latter are applied. The propagation of the
rhubarb may be either from seed or from offsets. It bears seed in
prodigious abundance, and that seed precisely resembles the seed of
the dock. It is sowed anv time in the spring, in the same manner
k2
132 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
as directed for cabbages, and when the plants come up, they ought
to he thinned to six inches apart in the row. In the fall, the plants
are taken up and planted in rows at three feet apart, and two feet
apart in the row. During the first summer after this, none of the.
leaves ought to he stripped off for use. If the plants throw up
seed-stalks, these should he kept cut down. During this summer,
the plants will become very strong, and the next spring they will
produce leaves, the stalks of which will be fit for use. They will
stand and flourish for any length of time on the same spot, and
their produce will be prodigious. When taken off for use, their
leaves should be stripped off, and not cut. It is perfectly hardy,
and all that it requires, is, digging the ground in the intervals and
between the plants in the month of November, and again early in
April, and giving a moderate supply of manure, once in two years.
Jf propagated from offsets; that is to say, shoots taken off from
the sides of the old stools, the offsets ought to be planted at the
distance before- directed ; and, if they be stout, and planted out in
the fall, you may begin using the leaves the next spring.
179. ROSEMARY is a beautiful little shrub. One of them
may be enough in a garden. It is propagated from slips, taken off
in the spring and planted in a cool place.
180. RUE. — Still more beautiful. Propagated in the same
manner. One plant of the kind is enough.
181. RUTABAGA.— (See Turnip.)
1S2. SAGE is raised from seed, or from slips. To have it at
hand for winter, it is necessary to dry it ; and it ought to be cut
for this purpose, before it comes out into bloom, as, indeed, is the
case with all other herbs.
183. SALSAFV. — The seed of the salsafy very nearly resembles
that of the wild oat. It is a tap-rooted plant, resemhling the
parsnip in colour, and not very much unlike it in flavour. It is
usually sowed late in February or earlv in March, in drills a foot
apart, and, when the plants come up, they are thinned to six
inches apart in the row. Hoeing between to keep down the weeds
is all that is required. Though it is usuallv sowed so early in the
spring, it ought not to be sowed till May, and even the middle of
May ; for, if sowed earlier, many of the plants will run up to seed,
and then thev become good for nothing for use. It is as hardy as the
parsnip. It stands in the ground all the winter, without the smallest
injury, and need not be taken up to be put in house except as a
precaution against frost. Some people let part of their plants stand
V.] SORREL. J33
until the spring, when they send up their seed-shoots very earlv,
which are cropped off and used in the same manner as asparagus.
Two or three plants left to run up to seed will be sufficient. The
seed- pods, when ripe, should be cropped off, made perfectly dry in
the sun, and then put by and preserved in a drv place.
184. SAMPHIRK is propagated from seed or from offsets. It
is perennial, and is sometimes used as a pickle, or in salads. The
time for sowing is April, and the same time may do for putting out
the offsets. It is, however, an insignificant thing, and hardly
worth serious attention.
185. SAVORY. — Two sorts, summer and winter ; the former
is annual, the latter perennial. Both may be propagated from
seed, sowed in a little patch early in spring ; but the latter may
also be propagated from offsets. To have these herbs in winter
with the least possible trouble and in the greatest possible perfec-
tion, thev should be cut and dried in the manner directed for sage.
1S6. SAVOY.— (See Cabbage.)
187. SCORZENERA.— This is only another kind of salsafy,
growing a little larger than the salsafy, the root being of a dark
colour on the outside instead of being of a whitish colour, and it is
propagated and cultivated and used in precisely the same manner
as the salsafy.
1S8. SHALOT. — A little perennial onion, propagated from
seed, if you please, but much more easily propagated from offsets,
like the garlick, which it perfectly resembles in the manner of its
growing. The offsets ought to be planted out in rows six or eight
inches apart, in the month of March, and the plants ought to
stand four inches apart in the row. The ground should not be
wet at bottom, and should be kept very clean during the summer.
As soon as the leaves die, the bulbs should be taken up and made
perfectly dry in the sun ; then tied in bunches and hung up to be
preserved in a dry place.
189. SKIRRIT is a plant very little known now-a-days; but if
any one has a mind to cultivate it, the manner of doing it is the
same as that directed for the salsafy. It is, however, a perennial,
and may be propagated from offset-.
100. SORREL. — This is no other than the wild sorrel cultivated.
The French, who call it oseille, make large messes of it. But a
short row is quite enough for an English garden. It is perennial.
May be propagated from seeds, but much more readily from offsets.
134 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
191. SPINAGE. — Everv one knows the use of this excellent
plant. Pigs, who are excellent judges of the relative qualities of
vegetables, will leave cabbages for lettuces, and lettuces for spi-
llage. Gardeners make two sorts of spinage, though I really be-
lieve there is but one. One sort they call round spinage, and the
other prickly spinage, the former they call summer spinage, and
the latter winter : but 1 have sowed them indiscriminately, and
have never perceived any difference in their fitness to the two sea-
sons of the year. The. spinage is an annual plant, produces its
seed and ripens it well even if sowed so late as the month of May.
It may be as well to sow the round spinage for summer, and the
prickly spinage for winter, but the time of sowing and the man-
ner of cultivating are the only things of importance ; and great
attention should be paid to these, this being a most valuable plant
all the year round, but particularly in the winter and the spring.
It has something delightfully refreshing in its taste, and is to be
had at a time when nothing but mere greens or broccoli is to be
had. It far surpasses them both in my opinion, the use of it never
being attended with any of those inconveniences as tobodilv health
which is the case with both the others. In the summer there are
plenty of other things ; but for the winter crop, due provision should
always be made. The time for sowing for the winter crop, if the
ground be good, is the last week in August, and if the ground be
poor, a fortnight earlier. Sow in shallow drills, eight inches apart,
and thin the plants to six inches apart in the row : keep them
clear of weeds, hoe about them before winter sets in, and draw the
earth close up to the stems of the plants, taking care that the dirt
do not fall into the hearts. The ground should be rather of the
drier description ; for if wet, and the winter be severe, the plants
will be killed. They will have fine leaves in the month of Novem-
ber, or before : for use, the outside leaves should be taken off first,
or rather, these only should be taken off, leaving all the rest, and
they should be pinched off with the finger and the thumb close to
the stem of the plant. The plant will keep growing, more or less,
all the winter, except in very hard weather, and will keep on yield-
ing a supply from the beginning of November to the latter end of
May, when the seed stalks will begin to ri.se, and when the sum-
mer spinage, sowed in the latter end of February and cultivated in
the same way as the former, will be ready to supply their place.
About the first of May, another sowing of summer spinage should
V.] SQUASH. 135
take place ; but this will be generally supplanted bv peas, beans,
ami other MMDtner crops. If, however, the reader wish, like me,
to have it all the summer, he must sow again in the month of
June, and again in the month of July. These two latter sowing!
beinu: made in the coolest and least sunny part of the garden. As
to saving the seed of the spinage, a few plants of each sort will be
sufficient. The plants must be pulled up before the seed be dead
ripe, or the birds will have every grain. It is a coarse dooking
seed, with a thick husk upon it; but the small birds are very fond
of it, and will begin to hammer it out of the husks while these
are still green. The seed-plants, when pulled up, should be laid
in the sun to become perfectly dry, and the seed should be then
rubbed off and put by in a dry place.
192. SQUASH, sometimes called Vegetable Marrow; and,
though the thing is certainly very good as a vegetable, and the
former name not very flattering, the latter is certainly bevond its
merits. This plant, or rather this tribe of plants, is of the pump-
kin kind. There are several sorts, some for summer use and some
for winter use. The summer kinds that I have, are the flat bash,
the long bush, the crooked-necked bush; that is to say, they grow
upright and branch out like a little bush ; whereas the winter sorts
run upon the ground like cucumbers and melons. The time for
sowing all the sorts in England is, about the middle of Mav in
the south, and perhaps the first week in June in the north. The
squash is not so tender as the cucumber, and will stand any little
frosts that we have in June, though such frosts check them in their
growth. To have them early, they should be sowed in a gentle
hot-bed in April. Put out into pots in the manner directed for
cucumbers. They should be topped, while in the pots, in the
manner directed for cucumbers : about the middle of Mav, the
pot3 should be taken out and sunk in the natural ground, and a
frame set over them, or they should have a covering of hoops and
mats for the night-time, just to keep off the frosts. About the
middle of June, they should be planted out in the open level
ground, which need not be exceedingly rich. The distance for the
bush sorts ought to be five feet at the least, and for the running
sorts, of which I have the white winter squash, and the bell-shaped
winter squash, should be six feet at the least. The ground should
be kept verv clean. When the plants are put out of the pots the
balls should be sunk in the ground to a level with the ground, a
136 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP.
little water should be given to each ball after it is fixed in the
earth, and a little dry earth should be drawn up round the stems
of the plants to the height of the seed-leaf. In about a fortnight,
a very nice hoeing should be given to the whole of the ground. In
another fortnight, a very nice digging to the whole of the ground,
and the summer sorts will begin to produce for use, by the latter
end of July. If the first crop fail, or appear to be likely to fail,
vou mav sow again in July, and even in August; that is to say,
the summer sorts, and I dare say, the winter sorts too, but I have
no experience upon that head. I sowed some in the month of
August last vear, about five-and-twenty plants in number, and had
bushels of squashes fit for use before the frost came. All the bush
squashes are of a vellow colour before they are fit for use, though
I have seen them in the markets in England for sale when still
green. Of all the sorts, the fiat-bush is the best for the summer,
and the long white for the winter. The manner of cooking them
is very simple. They are merely washed clean, and boiled for
about twenty minutes ; but by running a fork into them, you know
when they are done in the same way that you judge in the case of
a turnip. The summer sorts must not hang on the plant long,
except you wish to save the seed. You soon discover what is their
usual size, and as soon as they arrive at that, they are fit to be
gathered. They require no peeling as a turnip does : and if they
fee fas the winter squashes will be) much larger than they are
wanted for one time, you may cut a part off, and leave the rest for
use another day. They are certainly far preferable to the best of
turnips ; and though they are not actually marrow, they are a very
delightful vegetable, and their produce is prodigious. If well cul-
tivated, I dare say that a single plant of the fiac bush squash would
produce a bushel of fruit ; but like the cucumber and all other
plants of the same description, if you wish the plant to continue
producing for a long while, you must take care to gather every
fruit as soon as it becomes fit for use, and before it begins to ripen
its seed. The small ones, that is to say, the fruit gathered at a
verv earlv stage, when not much bigger than a lar^e walnut, for
instance, make excellent pickles, much better than cucumbers. If
you wish to save the seed, you must proceed in exactly the same
manner as directed in the case of the cucumber.
193. TANSEY. — A perennial culinary and medicinal herb, pro-
pagated from seed, if you like; but from offsets is the easiest
v.] TURNir. 137
way : a plant or two would be sufficient for a garden, and when
once it had taken root, it would remain there for a lifetime.
194. TARRAGON is a very hot, peppery herb, used in soups
and salads. It is perennial, and may be propagated from seed
sowed at anv time in the spring, or from offsets put out in either
spring or fall. Its young and tender tops only are used. It is
eaten with beef-steaks in company with minced shalots. A man
may doubtless live very well without it ; but an orthodox clergy-
man once told me, that he and six others once ate some beef-
steaks with shalots and tarragon, and that they " voted unani-
mously, that beef-steaks never were so eaten !" If you will have
it in winter, you must dry it in the manner directed for sage and
other herbs.
195. THYME. — There are two distinct sorts of this popular
and most fragrant herb. One is called common thyme, and the
other lemon thyme, both are perennial, both may be propagated
from seed, but both may also be propagated from offsets or part-
ings of the roots, and this is the easiest way. The winter some-
times destroys thyme. Some of both sorts should be preserved for
winter use, cut at the same stage as is directed for the sage ; and
as in the case of all other herbs, cut when perfectly dry, and dried
in the shade, in some place where it receives no wet either from
rains or dews during the drying.
196. TOMATUM. — This plant comes from countries border-
ing on the Mediterranean. Of sorts there are the red, the yellow,
and the white. The fruit is used for various purposes, and is sold
at a pretty high price. The plants must be raised in a gentle
hot-bed pretty early in April, or late in March, put into small pots
when they are two inches high, and turned out into the natural
ground about the first week in June ; but even then they must be
put on the south side of a wall, or in some other warm and shel-
tered situation. If close to a wall, their runners may be trained
up it by the means of shreds when the leaves and fruit make a very
beautiful appearance. If not close to a wall, there must be sticks
put to train the vines up and to tie them to. The ground in which
they are planted should be kept very clean, and frequently stirred
about them. If you intend to save the seed, you should have a
plant or two very early placed against a south wall.
197. TURNIP. — I am here to speak of turnips to be cultivated
in a garden for table use, and not to be cultivated in a field for the
use of cattle ; but as the Swedish turnip or rata baya, yields most
138 KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. [CHAP,
delicate greens for use in March, a few of these might find a place
in a garden. It is true that they are to be found upon almost every
farm ; but you must go to the farm to get them, and get leave to
take them into the bargain ; so that a couple of rows across one
of the plats ought to find a place in the garden. The garden-
turnip is called the stone-turnip by some ; by others, the early
white Dutch- turnip ; some say that they are both the same ; there
is another turnip which has a long and taper root, and not a large
bulb in proportion ; and this is called, in Hampshire at least, the
mouse-tailed turnip. But the finest turnip for eating that I ever
saw, I never yet saw in England. It is a little flat turnip. The
bulb lies almost wholly upon the top of the ground, sending down,
from the centre of it, a slender tap. This bulb is about four or
five inches in diameter in general, and not above two inches
through in depth. The flesh is of a deep yellow colour. This sort
of turnip is in universal use throughout the northern states of
America. Some farmers in England cultivate the yellow Scotch
turnip, as it is called j and if this turnip really did come from
Scotland, there is something good that is Scotch at any rate. This
yellow turnip is cultivated in Herefordshire under the name of the
ox turnip ; and I remember that Mr, Palmer of Bollitree told me
that it far exceeded, in point of richness, and in point of standing
the weather, all other turnips except the Swedish : I think his
account was, that weight for weight, it was half wav between the
common turnip and the Swedish, as food for cattle. However,
the chances are, that as people like white better than yellow in a
turnip, they will prefer the early white Dutch or early stone to any
other. The manner of propagating and cultivating all the sorts is
the same. Spring turnips or rather early summer turnips, are very
poor things : the plant must have cold weather to make it really
good : do what you will, it will be hot if you have it to eat in the
early part of the summer ; but if you wish to have them at that
time, you must sow them in March. The manner of sowing is,
in shallow drills, a foot or fifteen inches apart, and the plants
thinned to eight or nine inches in the row. The fly, or rather the
flea, is apt to take them off, and in that case, there is no remedy
but sowing again. The ground between them should be kept clean,
and it should not be fresh dunged, for that will be sure to make
them rank and hot. Depend rather upon the Tullian principle
of causing growth by tillage. For autumnal and winter use, tur-
nips are very good and very convenient, seeing that they may be
V.] WORMWOOD. 139
so easily preserved from the frost, even in the severest winters. To
ensure a crop, you should sow in the last week of July, or the first
of August, in the south of England, and a week or two earlier to-
wards the north, ft is a very good way to sow again in the last
week of August, especially in good and warm soil, for these will
he sound in the month of March, and it the winter he mild, quite
large enough, while those sowed earlier, will hecoine woolly by that
time. But there is a way to prevent this woolliness : that is to
say, by taking up the turnips and taking off their greens and roots
early in Novemher, keeping them in a cellar or some other conve-
nient place, taking care to exclude all bruised, broken, or rotten
turnips or parts of turnips. A small conical heap made in the
garden, upon the top of the ground, covered first with straw and
then with earth, will keep the turnips perfectly sound until March,
so that be the winter what it may, you may always have turnips
ready for use ; and as they are not in a state to grow, they will
not become woolly.
198. WORMWOOD is a herb purely medicinal. It mav be
propagated from seed, from slips, or from offsets : it is perennial,
and a foot square in the herb-bed is enough to be allowed to it. It
loses its leaves in the winter; and therefore, for winter use, it
must be cut and dried in the manner directed in the case of other
herbs, and put by and preserved in paper bags.
199. Nota Bene. — BORAGE.— 1 omitted the insertion of this
plant in due alphabetical order, and as the printer treads closely
upon my heels, I am obliged to mention it here. — This is a very
pretty flowering plant. One sort of it has blue flowers, one red,
and another while. The only use that I ever saw borage put to,
was putting it into wine and water along with nutmeg, and some
other things perhaps, the mixture altogether being called cool-
tankard, or by the shorter name cvp. If once you have it grow-
ing upon any spot, you need not take the trouble to sow it. It
bears an abundance of seed, some of which is ripe while the plant
is still in bloom. If you wish to have it young at all times, you
may sow in the spring, m the summer, in autumn, or at any time.
The plants should not stand too thick upon the ground, and the
ground should be kept clean. Any awkward corner under one of
the hedges will do verv well for borage, which, however, is by no
means unornamental in a flower-garden, both flower and leaf being
very pretty.
140 FRUITS. [CHAP.
CHAPTER VI.
Fruits. Propagation, Planting, Training and Pruning, whether
wall-trees, espaliers, or standards, with an Alphabetical List
of the several Fruits, and with observations on the Diseases of
Fruit-trees.
200. All the fruits to be treated of here, with the exception of
the cranberry, the melon, and the strawberry, are the produce of
trees, or of woody plants. In treating of them I shall pursue the
following course : first, give instructions as to the propagation,
next as to the planting, next as to the training and pruning ; next
I shall give the list of fruits ; and lastly, I shall make some re-
marks on the nature and tendency of the diseases of fruit-trees,
and on the remedies proper to be applied.
PROPAGATION.
201. All fruit-trees, from the loftiest cherry down to the
gooseberry, may he propagated by seed; and this would be the
proper way ; but nature has so contrived it, that the seed of
fruit-trees will not bring trees to produce the same sort of fruit
except by mere accident ; so that gardeners are compelled, in
order to ensure the sort of fruit which they wish to have, to raise
the trees from some part or other of the wood of the tree the like
of which they wish to have. The several parts of the wood taken
and used for this purpose, are slips, layers, cuttings, and muds.
The different methods of propagation suited to each kind will be
mentioned under the name of the kinds respectively in the alpha-
betical list which will form a part of this present chapter. In this
place, therefore, I am to describe the several methods generally,
and the general management suited to each.
202. SLIPS are little branches of one or two vears' growth,
pulled off from a limb or larger branch of the tree by a downward
jerk of the hand. You then take a sharp knife, trim off' the ragged
VI.] PROPAGATION. Ml
bark from the bottom of the slip, and cut the tip of the slip off
at the same time, leaving the slip altogether to be about a foot
loop. The time of the year for taking off slips is about the be-
ginning of March ; and if it were a little earlier, it might be tq
well. You then plant them as you would a little tree, but three oi
four inches deep in the ground, and in a shady place, a most con-
venient place for purposes of this sort would be near the edge on
the south side of the garden. They should be put in a row or
rows about eighteen inches apart, and about a foot apart in the
row. In this situation they will make shoots in the summer, and
make roots. Thev should be watered a little at the time of plant-
ing, and occasionally a little in the spring and summer, until they
have shoots two or three inches long. There are many sorts of
apples that will admit of propagation in this way, as quinces also
will ; and the common codling apple may be raised in this manner
with the greatest facility. In a very dry and hot season, it may
not be amiss to lay a little litter upon the ground in which the
slips are planted in order to keep it cool.
203. LAYERS. — You take a limb or branch of a tree in the
fall, or early in spring, or at Midsummer, and pull it down in such
a wav as to cause its top, or small shoots and twigs, to lie upon
the ground. Then faste?i the limb down by a peg or two, so that
its own force will not raise it up. Then prune off all the small
branches and shoots that stick upright ; and having a parcel of
shoots King horizontally, lay earth upon the whole, all along upon
the limb from the point where it begins to touch the ground, ami
also upon all the bottoms of all the shoots. Then cut the shoots
off at the points, leaving only two or three joints or buds beyond
the earth. The earth laid on should be good, and the ground
should be fresh digged and made very fine and smooth before the
branches be laid upon it. The earth laid on should be from six
inches to a foot thick. If the limb or mother branch be very stub-
born, a little cut on the upper side of it will make it more easy to
be held down. The ground should be kept clean from weeds, and
as cool as possible in hot weather. Perhaps rocks or stones (not
large) are the best and coolest covering. These layers will be
ready to take up and plant out as trees after they have been laid a
vear. In cases where the branches intended to be laid cannot be
bent down sufficiently near to the ground without danger of break-
ing them off, a box of earth or a pan with notches in the sides to
142 FRUITS. [chap.
lay the branch in may be used. Vines may, by means of pots with
opening sides, be laid as they are growing in the grapery or against
the wall ; and this is frequently done by the gardeners as matter
of curiosity mixed with utility. They lay a shoot in this manner
in the spring, and when it has rooted and is in full bearing in the
fall, they cut it off immediately below the pot, and produce at
table a growing tree covered with ripe fruit. The earth, however,
in boxes, or pans, or pots, being in small bodies, necessarily drv
up sooner than when not so ; and therefore when this method of
laying is adopted, great care must be taken to water constantly,
so as to keep up the required moisture. And not only does the
limb require this moisture to make it root, but when rooted, the
young roots require it to keep them alive. To cause the limb to
put forth roots, it is a common practice to prick it nearlv through,
in two or three directions, at one of the joints that are to be
buried under ground ; or to cut a notch nearly half way through
the limb. At these wounds, matter oozes out which quickly causes
the putting forth of young roots.
204. CUTTINGS are short pieces cut from trees in the month
of February. You take a shoot of the last year and cut it otf with
a small piece of the preceding year's wood at the bottom of it, if
that be convenient. The shoot should be a sound and strong one,
and it is not absolutely necessary that it should have a piece of
the preceding year's wood. The cutting should have, altogether,
about six joints or buds, and three of these should be under ground
when planted. The cutting should be fixed firmly in the ground,
and the cuts should be performed with a sharp knife, so that there
may be nothing ragged or bruised about the bark. As to situa-
tion, watering, and the rest, follow precisely the directions given
in the case of the slips. Currants and gooseberries, some apples,
and a great number of flowering shrubs, are universally propagated
from cuttings.
20."). BUDS are little pieces take out from the side of a shoot
in the summer, containing a newly-formed bud, which is fixed into
the side of a branch growing upon another tree; but as buds will
be more fullv described when I come to the act of budding, nothing
more is necessary upon the subject in this place.
20ft. STOCKS. — The general way of obtaining fruit-trees of
the larger kinds is by ifruflhuj or budding; and this grafting or
budding is performed by putting cuttings or bud« upon other trees.
VI.] PROPAGATION. 1-13
They may be put upon large trees, which are already bearing ; so
that, by these arts, you may have numerous sorts of fruit upon the
same tree ; but, what 1 am to treat of here is, the manner of rais-
ing young trees; and to have these, there must be stocks pre-
vious] v prepared to receive the grafts or the buds ; therefore, 1 now
proceed to give directions for the making of this previous prepa-
ration or provision. Under the name of the different fruits, I shall
speak of the sort of stocks suitable to each ; but I may observe
here, that the stocks for apples are crabs, or apples ; that the
stocks for pears arc pears, quinces, or hawthorn ; and that the
stocks for peaches and nectarines, are plums, peaches, nectarines,
or almonds ; that the stocks for apricots are plums or apricots :
that the stocks for plums are plums ; that the stocks for cherries
are cherries ; and that the stocks for medlars or pears are hawthorn.
In many of the cases, stocks may be raised from suckers, and they
are so raised : but never ought to be so raised. Suckers are shoots
that come up out of the ground, starting from the roots of trees,
and are very abundant from pears and plums, and sometimes from
cherries. They run to wood, and produce suckers themselves in
abundance, which trees do not that are raised from seeds, cut-
tings, or layers. Suckers, therefore, never ought to be used to
graft or bud upon ; for if you graft a pear for instance upon a pear
sucker, the tree begins to send out suckers almost immediately;
and, in America, where this hasty and lazy practice prevails, I
have seen a pear orchard with all the ground covered with
underwood forming a sort of coppice. I will therefore sav no
more about suckers, but proceed now to the proper mode of
obtaining stocks, first speaking of those which are to be ob-
tained from the pips, and then of those which are to be obtained
from the stones. The pips of crabs, apples, pears, and quinces,
are obtained from the fruit: the three former in great abundance,
when cider, perry, or verjuice, is made ; the last with some
difficulty, on account of the comparative rareness of the fruit, but
quince stocks are so easily obtained from cuttings or layers, that
this is not a matter of much consequence. The pips are of
course collected in the fall of the year; and when collected,
make them dry, put them immediately into fine dry earth or sand,
and keep them safe from mice until the month of March. When
that month comes, dig a piece of ground well and truly; make
it rich; make it very fine, form it into beds three feet wide,
144 FRUITS, [CHAP.
draw drills across it at eight inches distance, make them from
two to three inches deep, put in the seeds pretty thickly, cover
them completely, tread the earth down upon them ; and then
smooth the surface. When the plants come up, thin them to
ahout three inches apart; and keep the ground between them
perfectly clean during the summer. Hoe frequently ; but not deep
near the plants; for we are speaking of trees here; and trees do
not renew their roots so quickly as a cabbage or a turnip does. These
young trees should be kept during the first summer as moist as
possible, without watering; and the way to keep them as moist
as possible is, to keep the ground perfectly clean and to hoe it
frequently. 1 cannot help observing here, upon an observation of
Mr. Marshall: "As to tveeding" says he, "though seedling
" trees must not be smothered, yet some small weeds may be suf-
" fered to grow in summer, as they help to shade the plants and
" to keep the ground cool." Mercy on this gentleman's readers !
Mr. Marshall had not read Tull ; if he had, he never would
have written this very erroneous sentence. It is the root of the
weed that does the mischief. Let there be a rod of ground well set
with even " small weeds," and another rod kept iveeded. Let them
adjoin each other. Go, after fifteen or twenty days of dry wea-
ther ; examine the two ; and you will find the weedless ground
moist and fresh, while the other is dry as dust to a foot deep.
The root of the weed sucks up every particle of moisture. What
pretty things they are then to keep seedling trees cool ! — To pro-
ceed : these seedlings, if well managed, will be eight inches high, and
some higher, at the end of the first summer. The next spring they
should be taken up ; or this may be done in the fall. They should
be planted in rows, four feet apart, to give room to turn about
amongst them ; and at two feet apart in the rows, if intended to
be grafted or budded without being again removed. If intended
to be again removed before grafting or budding, thev mav be put
at a foot apart. They should be kept clean by hoeing between them,
and the ground between them should be digged in the fall, bur not
at any other season of the year. The plants will grow fast or slowlv
according to the management ; and the proper age for budding
or grafting is from three to five years ; but it is better to have a
strong stock than a too weak or too young one. The younger they
are the sooner they will bear, but the sooner they also decline and
perish. To speak of the kind of stocks most suitable to the differ-
VI.] PROPAGATION. 145
ent kinds of fruit-trees, is reserved till we come to speak of the
trees themselves ; but there are some remarks to be made here,
which have a general application, relative to the kinds of stocks.
It is supposed by some persons, that the nature of the stock afreets
the nature of the ft uit ; that is to say, that the fruit growing on
branches, proceeding from a bud, or a graft, partakes more or less
of the flavour of the fruit which would have grown on the stock if
the stock had been suffered to grow to a tree and to bear fruit.
This is Mr. Marshall's notion. But, how erroneous it is
must be manifest to every one, when he reflects that the stock
for the pear tree is frequently the white-thorn. Can a pear par-
take of the nature of the haiv, which grows upon the thorn, and
which is a stone-fruit too ? If this notion were correct, there could,
be hardly a single apple-orchard in all England ; for they are all
grafted upon crab- stocks ; and of course all the apples, in the
course of years, would become crabs. Apricots and peaches are
generally put on plum-stocks, yet, after centuries of this practice,
they do not become plums. If the fruit of the graft partake of
the nature of the stock, why not the wood and leaves ? Yet, is
it not visible to all eyes, that neither ever does so partake ? — The
bud or graft retains its own nature wholly unchanged by the stock ;
and all that is of consequence, as to the kind of stock, is whether
it be such as will last long enough, and supply the tree with a
suitable quantity of wood. As to the stocks raised from stone-
fruit, the stones must be taken from the fruit when the fruit is
ripe, made perfectly dry in the sun ; then packed in perfectly dry
sand, and kept there until the month of November, when the
stones must be sowed in just the same manner as described for
the pips, except that they ought not to be closer than an inch
from each other in the drill, and should be covered to the depth
of three inches, or perhaps a little more. The plants will come
up in the spring, and will attain a good height the first summer.
They should be transplanted in the fall, first taking off the tap-
root, and shortening the side roots. In the next month of April,
they should be cut down to the ground and suffered to send up
only a single stalk for grafting or budding upon. They should
now be planted in rows at four feet apart and at a foot apart in the
row, in order to give room for the operations of grafting and bud-
ding. There are cases when stocks raised from layers are pre-
ferred 5 these cases will be mentioned under the head of the fruit
L
146 FRUITS. [chap.
to which they apply, and the reader already knows how to raise
stocks from layers, because it is done in just the same manner as
when the layer is intended to be a tree to bear fruit without bud-
ding or grafting. I cannot dismiss this part of the subject without
exhorting the reader never to make use of suckers as stocks : by a
very little additional care, you obtain seedling stocks ; and really
if a man have not the trifling portion of industry that is here re-
quired, he is unworthy of the good fruit and the abundant crops
which, with proper management, he may generally make himself
sure of.
207. GRAFTING.— When I come to the alphabetical list of
fruits, I shall speak of those circumstances connected with grafting
in which one sort of fruit differs from another ; but the mode of
performing the operation of grafting, and the mode of doing other
things relative to the stock and the scion, are the same in all cases,
therefore I shall in this place give the instructions necessary for a
knowledge of the arts of grafting and budding. There is another
thing too, which is equally applicable in all cases, and which ought
to be mentioned before I enter upon the subject of grafting and
budding ; and that is this, that the stock ought to stand one whole
summer upon the spot where it is grafted or budded before that
operation is performed upon it. If stocks be planted out in the
fall, the sap does not rise vigorously enough in the spring to afford
a fair chance for the growing of the graft ; but another remark of
equal importance is, that fruit-trees should stand onlv one summer
on the spot whence they are to be removed to their final destina-
tion, because if they stand longer than this, they will have large
and long roots, great amputations must take place, and the tree
suffer exceedingly.
208. Grafting is the joining of a cutting of one to another tree
in such a way as that the tree on which the cutting is placed, sends
up its sap into the cutting, and makes it grow and become a tree.
When a cutting is thus applied it is called a scion. Certain stocks
have been found to be suited to certain scions, but these will be
particularly mentioned hereafter in the articles treating of the re-
spective kinds of fruit. It is best that I confine myself here, as
much as possible, to instructions as to the time of grafting, the
mode of preparing the scion, the mode of pei -forming the operation
of grafting, and lastly, to the treatment of the plant grafted. Tbo
time of grafting is, generally, from the beginning of February to
VI.] 1 -UOPAflATION. 147
the oiul of March, beginning with the earliest sorts of tret-, as
plums, cherries, and pears, and ending With the latest, as apples. But
seasons are different, and in a backward one, the season for graft-
ing will be backward, and in such case, the fulness and bursting
appearance of the stocks, and the mildness of the weather, must
be our guides. Not but much more than the necessary im-
portance is attached to this matter by us ; for 1 have seen an
American negro-man, sitting by a six-plate stove, grafting apple
trees in the month of January, and then putting away the grafted
plants in a cave there to wait till April, before he planted them !
However, it is certain that mild weather with occasional showers
is the best time for grafting. The mode of preparing the scion
comes next : in the early part of February, take from the tree
which you mean to propagate, as many branches of last year's
wood as you think will cut into the quantity of scions that you
want : but in choosing what branches to take, let the vigour of
the tree guide you in some measure. If it be a healthy, flourish-
ing, and young tree, take your branches from the outside shoots,
for the upright ones at the top, or those near the middle, are more
likely to be given to produce wood than fruit. Yet do not take
branches from the lowest part of the tree if you can avoid it, as
these are sure to be more puling in their nature. In case the tree
be old, or weakly, then choose the most vigorous of its last year'*
shoots, no matter where thev grow. Keep these branches buried
to the middle in dry mould : and when the season for grafting
arrives, take them up and cut them into proper lengths. The
middle part of each branch will generally be found to be the best;
but vour branches may be scarce and few in number, and then
make use of every part. Each scion should have from three to six
buds on it ; but six will, in all cases, be quite enough, as there is
no use in an extraordinary length of scion ; but on the contrary,
it may be productive of much mischief by overloading the head
with voung shoots and leaves as summer advances, and thereby
making it more subject to accident from high winds or heavy
rains.
209. The operation of grafting is performed many ways, though
no one of them differs from any of the others in principle, which is
that of bringing the under or inner bark of the scion to bear upon
the same bark of the stock ; so that the scion is (as I said before)
a branch of another tree, brought and made to occupy precisely
l2
149
FRUITS.
[chap.
the place where a branch has been cut off. The sap of the stock
flows upward towards the scion, and will flow on into the scion,
provided it find no interruption. Here therefore is the nicety : to
fit those two barks so closely the one upon the other that the sap
shall proceed onward into the scion just as it would have done into
the amputated branch, causing the scion to supplant the branch.
I shall only mention and illustrate two modes of grafting, namely,
tongue-grafting and clef t- grafting . These two it is necessary for
me to speak of separately and thoroughly to describe, for they are
not both of them applicable in all cases, the former being used in
grafting on small-sized stocks, and small branches of trees, and
the latter on large stocks and large branches.
210. Tongue- grafting. — Suppose you to have your stock of the
proper age for grafting (and for all about which see above, the
article on stocks), you cut it off at three or four inches from the
ground, and with a very sharp, straight, and narrow -hladed graft-
ing-knife, cut a thin strip of wood and bark upward from about
two inches below the top of your already shortened stock. Make
this cut at one pull of the knife, inserting the edge rather hori-
zontally, and when it has gone through the bark and into the wood
a little short of the middle, pull straight upwards (plate 3,
fig. \, a b).
PLATE 3.
Z
-
Fic.l. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fie. 4. Fie;. 5.
VI.] PROPAGATION. 149
Then, at less than half way down this cut, and with the blade
of your knife across the cut, the edge downward, cut a very thin
tongue of not more than three-eighths of an inch long (plate 3,
fig. 1. c). Proceed nearly in the same way with the bottom part
of the scion : cut first a narrow strip of wood and bark out, but
not putting the knife in horizontally as you have done with regard
to the stock at fig. 1, a, nor bringing it out straight to the end to
make a shoulder or angle, as you have done with the stock at fig.
1, b; but making a sloping cut (plate 3, fig. 2, a b) of about the
same length as the cut in the stock, or a little less if any thing ;
then make a tongue (plate 3, fig. 2 c) to correspond with that in
the stock, but recollect that this must be cut upward instead of
doivnward ; then place the scion upon the stock, inserting the
tongue of the scion into the tongue of the stock. Bring the four
edges of bark, that is, the two edges of the cut in the top of the
stock, and the two corresponding edges of the cut in the bottom of
the scion, to meet precisely ; or, if the scion be in diameter a
smaller piece of wood than the stock, so that its two edges of bark
cannot both meet those of the stock, then let only one meet, but
be sure that that one meets precisely. Observe well, that this
can never be, unless the first cut in the stock and that in the scion
(plate 3, figures 1 and 2, a and b) be as even as a die, and per-
formed by a knife scarcely less sharp than a razor. Take a com-
mon pruning-knife, and attempt to make a cut of this kind, and
vou will find, when you come to fit the scion on, that, squeeze
them together as you may, you will, in most cases, see light
between the parts of the stock and the scion that you are trying to
join so effectually as that the sap shall floiv out of the one and into
the other, unconscious of any division at all ! But I will not sup-
pose anybody so ungain (as it is called in Hampshire) as to go
about so nice an operation as this without being prepared with
the proper instrument for performing it ; and, therefore, I now
suppose the scion put on properly, and presenting the appearance
as in plate 3, fig. 3. But this is not all : the operation is not yet
complete. The two parts thus joined must be bound closely to
one another by matting, or bass, as the gardeners call it (pi. 3,
fig. 4). A single piece tied on to the stock an inch or so below the
part grafted, and then wound closely up till it reach the very top
of the stock, will, if well done, almost ensure the junction ; but,
lest parching winds should come and knit up all vegetation, it is
150 FRUITS. [CHAP-
usual to put on, besides the bandage of matting, a ball of well-
beaten clay, sprinkled over with a little wood-ashes, or the fine
siftings of cinders, to cover completely the parts grafted, that is,
from an inch below them to an inch or so above them (pi. 3,
fig.b)', and even to prevent this ball of clay from being washed
off by heavy rains, it is well to tie round it a covering of coarse
canvass, or else to earth up the whole plant as you do peas or
beans, drawing a little mound round it so as nearly to reach the
top of the clay. Something now remains to be said on the future
treatment of the grafted plant. In a month's time, at least, you
will see whether the scion have taken ; it will then be either
bursting forth into leaf, or it will be irrecoverably dead. In this
latter case, take off immediately canvass, clay, bandage and dead
scion, and let the stock push forth what shoots it please, and re-
cover itself. In the former case, however, you must, as soon as
the scion is putting forth shoots, cut off, or rub off, all shoots pro-
ceeding from the stock between the ground and the clay, as these,
if suffered to push on, would divert the sap away from the scion,
and probably starve it ; then carefully stake the plant, that is, put
a small stick into the ground at within three inches, or there-
abouts, of the root, and long enough to reach a few inches above
the scion, which you will tie to it slightly with a piece of wetted
matting. This is really necessary; for, when the shoots proceed-
ing from the scion become half a foot long, they, with the aid of
their leaves, become so heavy, that when blown to and fro by the
wind, will break off immediately above the clay, or become loosened
down at the part joined to the stock. The staking being done,
vou need do nothing more till about the middle of June, when you
should take off the whole mass of canvass, clay, and bandage ; but
be very careful, in taking off the clay, not to break off the plant at
the junction. It should be done by a careful hand, and after a
day or two of rainy weather, as then the clay is* moist and comes
off without so much danger to the plant as when it is not. On
taking off the clay, there is found a little sharp angle left at the top
of the stock; this should now be cut smooth off, as is marked bv
the dots at a mfig. 3. The bark of the stock and that of the scion
will lieal over this, and the union is then complete. Lastly, it is
frequently found that mould, and sometimes small vermin, have
collected round the heretofore-covered parts of the plant, accord-
ing as the clay has been cracked by the sun. Rub off all mould
vi.]
PROPAGATION.
131
with your finders. No instrument docs it so well; and kill nil
Term in in the sMK way ; and it is not amiss to finish this
work by washing the joined parts with a little soap and water,
Using a small painting-brush for the operation. All these things
done, vou have now only to guard against high winds, which, if the
plants be not staked as is ahove descrihed, will very likely he hroken
ott" by them, and, in this work of destruction, you will have the
mortification to see the finest of your plants go first.
211. Cleft grafting, — This, as I said ahove, is a species of
grafting adopted in cases where the stock is large, or where it con-
sists of a branch or hranches of a tree headed down. In either of
these cases, saw off horizontally the part you wish to graft, and
smooth the wound over with a carpenter's plane, or a sharp long-
bladed knife (plate 4, fig. 1).
PLATE 4.
Fin. 1.
Fie. 2.
Prepare your scion in this manner : at about an inch and a half
from the bottom, cut it in the form of the blade of a razor, that is,
make it sharp on one side and let it be blunt at the back, where vou
will also take care to leave the bark whole (plate 4* fig. % a).
Having thus prepared the scion, make a split (plate 4, fig. 1, a) in
the crown of the saw-cut, downwards, for about two inches, taking
care that the twe sides of this split be perfectly even. Hold it
then open by means of a chisel or a wedge (or when the stock is
hut a small one, your knife), and insert the scion, the sharp edge
going inwards, and the bark-side, or razor-back, remaining out-
ward,so that, on taking out the wedge or chisel, the cleft closes firmly
upon the scion (plate 4, fig. 3), the two edges of bark formed fu-
tile cleft squeezing exactly upon the two edges of bark formed by
the blunt razor-back. To make the two barks meet precisely, is,
the reader will see, the only nicety in this operation ; but this is
152 FRUITS. [chap.
so essential, that the slightest deviation will defeat the purpose.
In this sort of grafting, the stock on which you graft is generally
strong enough to hold the scion close enough within its cleft with-
out the aid of binding, and then it is better not to bind ; but, as it
is also necessary to prevent air circulating within the wounded
parts both of the stock and the scion, use grafting-clay to cover
them over so as effectually to exclude that air, and cover the clay
with a piece of coarse canvass, wetting it first, and then binding it
on securely. In this way, the stock being strong, you may insert
several scions on the same head, by making several different clefts,
and putting one scion in each ; but this can only be to ensure your
having two to succeed, for, if all the scions that you can put upon
one head take, you must choose the two most eligible, and sacri-
fice the rest, as more than two leading limbs from such head ought
not to be encouraged. The season for performing this sort of
grafting, and the mode of preparing the scion, and the future
treatment of the tree, are precisely the same as in Tongue grafting .
212. I have metioned an application of clay to be used in
grafting; but it may be as well here to give some particular in-
structions as to preparing this, before I end this article on graft-
ing. The object being to put something round the wounded part
of the stock and the scion that shall exclude water and air, it is
necessary, of course, that the application be adhesive and close.
Pure 'yellow or blue clay is both, if you beat it well with a good
stout stick, now-and-then pouring on a little water to make it
work. Get it, in this way, to be perfectly pliable in the hand.
Beat it upon a hard stone, or a boarded floor, or a brick floor
swept clean first; but beat it again and again, returning to it for
two or three days, and taking a spell each day. If you suffer it to
remain hard, besides the danger of unsettling the scion in squeezing
round it this untractable mass, it cracks, the very first hot day, and
is utterly useless. Let it, therefore, be so loose that the man who
follows the grafter to put it on, can take off a piece and readily
flatten it out into a kind of pancake, an inch or so thick, and
wrap it, without any exertion on his part, or any resistance on the
part of the plant, round the grafted tree. Then he should sprinkle
a little wood-ashes over the whole to dry it, and prevent its
cracking from the heat of the sun.
21.'$. IiUi3DING is performed for precisely the same purpose
as grafting, and, like grafting, it is performed in many different
vi.]
PROPAGATION.
153
wav- j but I shall only notice the most usual, and, as long expe-
rience has ascertained, the best, method : namely, that T buddfaff,
so called from the form of the two cuts that are made in the bark
of the stock to receive the bud (pi. 5, fig. 1) ; or shield budding,
as it is sometimes called, from the form of the piece of bark on
which the bud is seated (pi. 5, fig. 2), assuming the shape of a
shield when it is prepared to be inserted within the T cut in the
stock. The only solid difference between budding and grafting is
PLATE 5.
Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3.
this, that, whereas, in grafting, you insert on the stock a branch
already produced, in budding, you insert only the bud. I shall
proceed, in treating of this matter, in the same wav that 1 did in
the preceding article ; namely, as to the season proper for budding,
the choosing and preparing of the bud, the operation of budding,
and the future treatment of the jj J ant budded.
214. The season for budding is, generally, from the latter end
of Julv to the latter end of August, the criterions being a plump
appearance of the bud formed on the spring shoot of the same
year, seated in the angle of a leaf; and a readiness in the bark of
the stock to separate from the wood.
215. In choosing and preparing the bud, fix on one seated at
about the middle of a healthy shoot of the Midsummer growth.
These are, generally speaking, most inclined to fruitfulness.
Choose a cloudy day, if you have a choice of days at this season,
and, if not, perform your work early in the morning, or in the
evening. The time being proper, you sever the branch on which
you find buds to your liking. Take this with you to the stock
that yon are going to bud. Holding the branch in your left-hand,
the largest end downward, make a sloping cut from about an inch
154 FRUITS. [chap.
and a half below the bud, to about an inch above it, suffering your
knife to go through the bark and about half way into the wood,
cutting out wood and all. This keeping of the wood prevents the
bud and its bark from drying while you are preparing the incision
n the stock ; and, if you wish to carry buds of scarce sorts to anv
distance, you may do so safely by putting their ends in water or in
damp moss, but it is always safer, as well in grafting as in budding,
to perform the operation with as much expedition as possible, but
particularly it is so in budding.
216. Operation of budding. Cut off the leaf under which the
bud is seated, but leave its foot-stalk (])l. 5, Jig. 2, a), and, by this,
hold it between your lips, while, with your budding-knife, you cut
two straight lines in the stock at the place where you wish to insert
the bud, and this should be at a place where the bark is smooth,
free from any bruises or knots, and on the side rather from the
mid-day sun. Of these lines, let the first be horizontal (pi. 5,
fig. 1, a), and let the next be longitudinal, beginning at the middle
of the first cut, and coming downward {pi. 5, fig. \yb). Let
them, in short, describe the two principal bars of the Roman letter
T. You have now to take out from the bark on which your bud
is, the piece of wood on which the bark is, and which has served
you up to this time, to preserve the bark and bud from drying and
shrinking. But this is a nice matter. In doing it, you must be
careful not to endanger the root, as it is called, of the bud, because
in that is its existence. The bark (if the season be proper for
budding) will easily detach itself from this piece of wood, but still
it requires very careful handling to get it out without endangering
the root of the bud. Hold the bud upon your fore-finger, and keep
vour thumb on the wood opposite; then, with the fore-finger and
thumb of the other hand, bend backward and forward the lower
end of the shield, and thus coax the wood to disengage itself from
the bark; and when you find it decidedly doing so, remove your
thumb from it, and the whole piece of wood will come out, leaving
you nothing but a piece of bark of about two and a half inches
long, with a bud and foot-stalk of a leaf on it. If the root of the
bud be carried away with the piece of wood, you will perceive a
small cavity where it ought to be. In this case, throw away the
bud and try another.
217. Having succeeded in a second attempt, now open the two
sides of the longitudinal bar of the T, with the ivory haft of your
VI.] PROPAGATION. 155
budding-knife (pi 5, jig. 1, b) ; but, in doing tlu\ rai^e the bark
clearly down to the wood, for the inside of the piece of hark he-
longing to the hud must be placed directly against this. Having
opened these sides wide enough to receive the longest end of bark.
insert it nicely: taking especial care that its inner side lie flatly
against the wood of the stock. Then cut the upper end of the hark
off so that its edge shall meet precisely the edge of the horizontal
bar of the T (pi. 5. jig. 1. a). With your finger and thumb,
bring l'ie two sides of the longitudinal bar over the bark of the
bud, or rather the shield, and, with a piece of well-soaked matting,
begin an inch below this bar, and bind firmly all the way up to an
inch above the horizontal bar, taking good care to leave the bud
peeping out. Bind in such a way as to exclude the air, for that is
the intent of binding in this case. Tie your piece of matting on
first, and then wind it round and round the stock as you would a
ribbon, taking care not to twist the matting. Wind it sloujy, and
every time you have gone completely round, give a gentle pull to
make it firm.
2 IS. Future treatment. — In a fortnight's time from the opera-
tion, you will discover whether the bud have taken, by its round-
ness and healthy look ; and, in a fortnight after that, loosen the
bandage to allow the whole plant to swell ; and, in ahout five
weeks from the time of budding, take away the bandage altogether.
In this state the plant passes the winter, and, just as the sap begins
to be in motion, in the following spring, vou head down the stock
at about half an inch above the bud, beginning behind it, and
making a sloping cut upward to end above its point. Some gar-
deners leave a piece of the stock about six inches long for the first
year, in order to tie the first summer's shoot to it, to prevent its
being broken off hv the wind. This may be well, when the plant
is exposed to high winds, but, even then, if vou see danger, vou
may tie a short stick on to the top part of the stock, and to this tie
the young shoot, and then the sap all goes into the shoots from the
hud, instead of being divided between it and the six inches of
stock left in the other way.
219. There are some advantages that budding has over graft-
ing, and these I think it right to mention. In the first place, uni-
versal experience has proved, that certain trees succeed very much
better when budded than the same trees do when grafted : such
are the peach, nectarine, apricot, plum, and cherry; indeed, the
156 FRUITS. [chap.
rule is, that all stone fruits do better budded than grafted. That
they are, when budded, less given to gum, a disease peculiar to
stone fruits, and often very pernicious to them. You may also, by
budding, put two or more branches upon a stock that would be too
weak to take so many grafts; and you may bud in July when
grafting has failed in March and April. The disadvantage of
budding is, that the trees are rendered one year later in coming
into bearing than when you graft.
220. PLANTING.— Under the heads of the several trees in the
list which will follow hereafter, directions will be given with regard
to the age, the size, and other circumstances which will be found
to vary according to the several purposes and situations for which
the trees are intended. I shall here, therefore, confine myself
merely to the act of planting; that is to say, the manner of re-
moving a young tree from one spot and placing it in another; the
rules here being applicable to all trees. The first thing to be
observed is, that, though trees will grow if kept out of the ground
for a considerable time, they ought to be kept in that state as short
a time as possible, and, during even that short time, the roots
ought to be exposed as little as possible to the sun and wind. The
taking up of a young tree ought to be performed with the greatest
possible care, especially if it have stood in the place whence
it is taken for more than one year. And here let me stop for a
minute in order to re-impress upon the mind of the reader the
importance of the observation which 1 made in paragraph 20b".
After having read that paragraph again, the reader will please to
observe, that all long roots must be pruned off to within at most
four or five inches of the stem of the tree ; and that, if the tree
have stood too long in its place before its final removal, this loss
of root will render it absolutely necessary to cut off the upper part
of the tree very near to the ground ; and even after that, will make
it very slow to re-enter upon vigorous growth. If, therefore, vou
be not ready for the transplanting of your trees, at the time when
they might be transplanted, rather than let them stand to get these
long roots, take them up in the fall of the year, give the roots and
heads a pruning, and plant tliem again, so that you may not expe-
rience the great check at the final transplanting.
221. I return now to the taking up of the tree, which ought to
be done without tearing any of the roots, and which is not done
without such tearing one time out of twenty. Vou ought to dig
VI.] PLANTING. 157
some earth away a little distance all round the tree to a consi-
derable depth, and nearly let it tumble down of itself ; for if vou
pull you break a root; and if that root be large, and break off near
the stem of the tree, the tree will have a bad root, and will never
grow finely. Having taken the tree fairly out of the ground, vou
begin bv pruning the. root. All the larger shoots of the roots \<>ii
cut off to within six inches of the stem, and you take entirely out
all the hairy fibres ; for they never grow again, and they are apt to
mould and to keep the earth from closely touching the roots out of
which the new shoots are to come. Having pruned the root, you
proceed to plant the tree. The hole must be much deeper and
wider than is required for the mere reception of the root. The
earth ought to be broken very finely at the bottom of the hole.
When that is done, the root of the tree ought to be placed upon it
in such a manner as for the tree to stand about an inch higher
above the ground than it stood before it was removed. If the tree
be to be placed against a wall, the head should lean gently against
the wall, and the bottom of the trunk about eight or ten inches
from it : if the tree be to be planted in the open ground, the trunk
should be held perfectly upright : while thus held, very fine earth
should be put upon the roots : if it were sifted, so much the
better : the tree should be joggled or shaken a little, to cause the
earth to go down in and amongst the roots and fill up all the
cavities, so that the fine earth may touch the roots, and lie closelv
round them in every part. If you tumble in the rough earth, which
would leave part of the roots untouched, the parts so untouched
will mould, will perish, or become cankered. When the roots are
all covered with very fine earth, you may fill up the hole with the
earth that has come out of it, only taking care to break it very fine.
Before you have put in quite all the earth, give a gentle tread all
round the tree with your foot, treading first at a foot distance from
the tree, and approaching all round to within three or four inches;
then put the rest of the earth over the treading, and leave the
surface round the treading in the form of a dish.
222. If you plant late in the spring, lay a little short litter into
the dish, and give the tree a watering occasionally until the
month of July, unless the weather obviously render such operation
unnecessary. I am particularly anxious that the reader should
attend to this part of my instructions ; for, nine times out of ten,
when failure takes place, careless planting is the cause. If vou
158 FRUITS. [chap.
purchase trees, you should look well at the roots ; and, if they be
very large, or at all torn, it is much better to fling the trees away
than to plant them ; for what are a few shillings, or even a few
pounds, when compared wtth the loss of years, in providing your-
self with fruit ?
TRAINING AND PRUNING.
223. Training and pruning go together : they are two parts
of the same act, because vou lay the branch in its proper place at
the same time that you cut it. They are, therefore, inseparable
as matters to be treated of. There are, however, different sorts
of training : one against walls or pails, or against a house ; and
the trees thus situated are called wall-trees. After these, come
espaliers and dwarf trees in various shapes for a garden. These
will be spoken of by and by ; and, at last, I shall speak of the
planting of standard trees for an orchard. The main principles
of pruning are the same in all cases : the objects are, to render
trees productive, to preserve their health, and to keep them in
regular and convenient form ; for, in this case, as well as in
almost every other, though nature does a great deal, she will not
do all : she will not do every thing : she must be and will be
assisted ; and certainly the management of fruit-trees may be
considered as one of the principal parts of the art of gardening.
224. J shall now give instructions for the pruning of peach
trees placed against walls. If I were to stop at everv particular
part of the instructions, in order to point out the difference be-
tween the pruning of a peach tree and that of the apricot and
other trees, the mind of the reader would be bewildered : there-
fore, I shall keep the peach tree solelvin mv eve while giving these
instructions ; and, as this head of training and pruning will imme-
diately be followed by an Alphabetical List of Fruits, the reader
will find, under the name of each fruit, such remarks as are
required to point out to him in what respect he is to differ in his
training and pruning from the rules laid down in the case of the
peach. He will, therefore, please to observe, that, in the instruc-
tions which I am now about to give, I have the peach tree solely in
my eye.
225. Training and pruning involve so many circumstances,
VI.] TKAINING AND PRUNING. 159
such .1 great variety of objects and of operations, that to give
minute instructions upon the subject absolutely demand a great
.space ; and, after all, it is fortunate, when mechanical operation!
are to lie described by words ; it is extremely fortunate, if the
writer make himself clearly understood ; and, indeed, it is impos-
sible for him to do it unless he have the best attention of the
reader : it is not a clear statement of a fact; it is not a mere
affirmation or negation, that is required here ; nor is it in the con-
struction of an argument and the drawing of a conclusion : here
we have to describe innumerable minute acts to be performed with
the hands and the fingers ; and, I have always found, that to be
intelligible, in such a case, is the most difficult thing that one
experiences in the use of words. Hence it is that this is
hardly ever attempted without the assistance of drawings, or of
something that teaches through the channel of the eye. I
shall do my best to make myself clearly understood; and, if I
have the strict attention of the reader, I have little doubt of suc-
cess. [ shall first offer some preliminary observations, and to
these I request the reader's extraordinary attention.
226. The time, or rather times, of priming, are common to all
fruit trees. The winter pruning is performed in February, March,
and April, beginning with the earliest sorts of trees (with reference
to their blooming) and ending with the latest, forming this series :
apricot, peach, plum, pear, cherry, apple. Quinces and medlars
will be spoken of sufficiently under the names of those trees, as will
gooseberries, currants, and raspberries. It may be matter of in-
difference, perhaps, wdiether the winter pruning of the above-men-
tioned trees take place in one of the afore -mentioned months or
the other ; but three things are to be observed in the case of all
trees ; that pruning ought not to be done during the time of
ilowering ; and that the summer pruning ought not to be done
till after the fruit has attained a considerable size ; that it is
essential always to prune with a very sharp knife; that the cut
ought to be from below, upwards, beginning behind a bud, and
moaning near its opening, taking good care not to hurt it. A
rubbishing pruning-knife, a thing made of bad stuff, or in bad
shape, will spoil any set of trees in the world. The best pruning
knives that 1 have ever seen are made by Mr. Richardson of
Kensington, and Mr. Holmks of Derby.
227. Preliminary observations. First ; The sap of trees ahvavs
160 FRUITS. [CHAP.
mounts perpendicularly from the root to the top, flowing through
the straight branches, and producing wood instead of fruit. There-
fore, when you wish to restore equality between two branches, of
which one is more weak than the other, bend the more vigorous
one down a little and raise the weak one, which will soon overtake
it. Also, when you wish a tree to furnish well at bottom, you must
prevent the sap mounting to the head, by inclining the upper
branches downwards and pruning them long, and, if necessary,
by means of the annulary incision.
228. Second : The less the sap has of direct channels ; the less
it can freely circulate between the bark, the more it will produce
of side branches and fruit-buds. Thus it is, perhaps, that the
graft and the annulary incision, by stopping the progress of the
sap, augment the quantity and improve the quality of the fruit.
So, when a tree runs to wood, bend the branches downwards ; stop
the sap, and force it to produce fruit.
229. Third : The sap flies more strongly into a shortened branch
than into a long one, and the more the branch is shortened, with
the more force will the sap be drawn to it. Therefore, when one
part of a tree becomes less strong than the other, prune it
shorter, so that the sap may go there in greater abundance and
reinforce the weakened part. This shows, too, that, to have fruit,
vou should prune long ; and short, to have wood. For instance,
if you cut a branch so as to leave but two or three buds, you will have
nothing but strong wood ; but cut off in the middle, the extremity
will then furnish wood, the middle spurs, and the lower end, fruit-
shoots ; so also, prune not at all, and incline horizontally, and
vou will have nothing but blossom-buds. From these premises,
it may be concluded, that, when you have a branch given to bear,
instead of pruning it long, as is the practice with most gardeners,
it should be pruned short to produce an influx of sap sufficient
to nourish and perfect the fruit ; and that the vigorous wood-
shoots, which the French call gourmands, or gluttons, should be
pruned long.
230. Fourth : If you cut a branch completely off, the sap goes
to the neighbouring branches and shoots. When a branch, there-
fore, becomes diseased and is difficult to cure, sacrifice it without
hesitation. The neighbouring branches will soon replace it, and,
perhaps, in less time than it would have taken in the cure, if that
had been possible.
VI.] TRAINING AND PRUNING. HJ 1
231. Fifth : F.verv shoot which has been topped or dis -budded,
throws out, from superabundance of sap, a quantity of shoots ami
fruit-buds. So, if by means of bending you cannot prevent a
branch throwing out wood, top it and pinch off the side buds
when they are bursting, and it will tend to fruit.
232. Sixth : The duration and the strength of a tree depend
upon an equality existing constantly between its head and its
roots, as well as between the different parts of its head. You
should never, therefore, cut back a tree to its main limbs or to its
trunk, unless there be a corresponding deficiency in the roots
either from old age or from accident. This proves the necessity
of pruning very short on transplanting. If one part of the
branches, by strong growth, take the sap destined for the other
part, these decline rapidly, and finish by complete decay, in
which they do not fail to involve the whole tree.
253. Seventh : The more a tree is forced into bearing, the
more it is exhausted ; but the more it is suffered to put forth wood,
the more vigorous it is. This principle proves that we should
never suffer a tree to become overloaded with fruit-branches, be-
cause we expose ourselves to lose it altogether in a few years, or,
at least, to see it barren for one, two, or even three, years. But
an intelligent gardener will always take care to provide an even
quantity of branches both for wood and fruit; and the result will
be that he will have a greater quantity of fruit, and of finer
quality, and that he may rest assured of this annually without
injuring the tree or shortening its duration.
234. These principles are applicable to all fruit-trees, but there
is another which applies more particularly to the stone-fruits, and,
of these, mostly to the peach-tree.
235. Eighth: The fruit-buds, particularly of stone-fruits, to
form and bring to maturity their fruit, should be accompanied br
shoot-buds, which draw the sap towards them. Every fruit-branch
which has not these dries up and dies without bearing. It often
happens that the severity of the winter destroys the shoot-buds
which are coming alongside the fruit-buds ; and those who prune
hefore this can be discovered, stand the chance of leaving fruit-
branches without wood-buds, and consequently, of seeing these
die as soon as they have flowered. Every fruit-branch which
has, at its extremity, nothing but a wood-bud, should be
shortened, unless you wish to preserve it for a wood -branch ; but
M
1G2 FRUITS. [CHAP.
do this only in a case of necessity, because it will always remain
sterile below.
230. Between the stone-fruits and the pip -fruits, there is a
great deal of difference in the manner of bearing. The latter bear
on little branches of from two to three inches long, called spurs.
These are two or three years in forming, and they generally come
upon other small branches. The first year, a spur has three leaves,
the second, five, and the third, seven. The stone-fruits, as the
peach for instance, bear their fruit on branches of one year's
growth, which should, therefore, be shortened at every winter
pruning. The fruit-buds of these last are easily recognised. They
are round and ruddv, and garnished with a cotton envelope ;
whereas the wood-buds are, on the contrary, long and of a green
colour.
237- Any form may be given to a tree, so that it be suited to
its nature, to the aspect, and to the soil. For instance, the wall-
tree is placed flat against a wall well exposed to the sun ; the
espalier, pyramid, bash, and dwarf trees, generally grafted on
stocks which yield but little sap, are placed in the borders of the
garden, and produce little shade, and require a less deep soil than
the standard or half-standard. The stocks on which it is proper
to graft these trees will be mentioned in the articles treating of
the particular management of each.
23S. The French method of pruning, as practised at Mon-
treuil, is the best for the peach-tree. And, as the peach-tree
is the most delicate, and the most difficult to manage, I will
take it as the model of a good form, and I shall refer to this arti-
cle in speaking of other trained trees, which ought all to be pruned
in the same manner, with the slight excepti us of keeping the
fruit-branches of the pip-fruits a longer time, because they do not
bear till about the second or third year, though they last much
longer; and of leaving on these branches fewer wood-buds, be-
cause thev are not wanted for such constant succession. These
differences will be treated of in the articles on each particular sort
of fruit.
239. The wood-branches of the peach-tree arc known by their
vigour, by their thickness, equal to, if not surprising, that of the
little-linger ; l>v their length of from three to six feet, Mid by their
bark, which is grev from the first vear. The fruit-branches, at
most not larger than a large quill, are from six inches to two feet
VI.]
TRAINING AND ritUNING.
163
long ; their bark is very smooth, green on the side towards the
wall, and red on the side towards the sun. Sometimes the flower-
blossoms are assembled in clusters round a short shoot, or spur of
one or two inches long, with a wood-bud at the end sufficient to
draw the sap which is necessary to nourish the fruit,
210. First Year — Suppose the young tree placed against a wall,
the first shoot of the graft never having been pruned. Cut it off
at six or eight inches above the place where it was grafted, as at
a in the figure, and then, when it has sent out its shoots, nail
PLATE 6.
them, after having taken off all that come before or behind. It is
a general rule never to leave any shoots but such as come at the
sides of the branches. Choose, amongst your young shoots, two
of equal vigour, one on each side, by which means to form your
two principal branches that are always to remain; and, having
done this, cut off all the rest. If one of them become longer or
more vigorous than the other, incline it downwards to suffer the
other to gain the advantage. If one of the two perish, train the
other straight again, prune it precisely as you did the graft, and
procure other two branches from it. The only mischief is, that
your tree is thus thrown back a year. When you nail up the two
main, or mother, branches, extend them so as to form a very wide
letter V (say an angle of ninety degrees), but being cautious ncrer,
on any account or at any age, to bend or arch them, or assuredly
the secondary branches run off with all the sap, and your tree is
deformed.
M 2
164
FRUITS.
[chap.
241. Second Year—- Do not attempt more than to procure
a lower secondary brancli and to lengthen the mother-branch.
Therefore prune close to the old shoot (a a), that is at two
buds from it, and of these two buds, the end one must be an
upper one, to prolong the mother-branch, and the under one will
throw out the lower secondary branch. Nail, and that i«? all.
PLATE 7.
242. Third Year — This year you must procure an upper
secondary branch, fruit-branches on the lower secondary
branch, and again a lengthening of the mother-branch. For these
purposes prune them other-branch at two buds again, (a a) but
let both buds be on the upper side of the branch, the end one to
carry on the mother-branch, and the other to form the upper
secondary branch. If two successive buds should not be
found thus placed, prune them at three buds from the last
year's wood, but, in this case, rub off the intermediate bud which
will be on the under side. To obtain lateral branches from the
lower secondary branch, prune it in the same manner (b b).
PLATE 8.
vi.]
TRAINING AM) 1'RUMNO.
165
243. Fourth Year — Lengthen the mother-branch, and get
se«ond lower secondary branch.
PLATE 9.
244. Fifth Year — Same operation ; but get a second upper
secondary branch.
245. Sixth Year — Same operation. Third iovver secondary
branch ; and, if the tree have been taken care of, and its form
have not been sacrificed to a too great eagerness to get fruit
quickly, the peach-tree is formed. Having all the requisites, that
is to say, health in its nature, a good aspect, and suitable land, it
ought to extend to between twelve and twenty feet in length, eight
in height over the surface of the wall, and to resemble the figure
below.
PLATE 10.
246. A'l trees will not so readily assume this form ; therefore I
will anticipate a few cases, and point out the means of remedying
the evil. Though a gardener, thoroughly embued with these prin-
1GG FRUITS. [CHAK
ciples, and applyihg them under all circumstances, can never be in
error.
247. If the upper secondary branches, favoured by their more
perpendicular position, flourish at the expense of the mother-
branch, incline them downward, even, if necessary, to touch the
mother-branch, to re-establish the equality. And you may also
leave some fruit-buds to slacken the sap ; and, at the time of nail-
ing, shorten the mother-branch at a strong wood- bud, whilst you
take care to prune at a weak one on the branch or branches that
you have lowered. In order that both the sides of the tree may be
alike, the corresponding secondary branches, both upper and under,
should be pruned at buds of the same vigour and at the same
height. The same with regard to the mother-branches.
24S. The secondary branches ought to be separate enough to
allow of nailing the fruit-branches that they throw out, sav about
two feet ; but it ought not to be more, because a well-trained tree
ought never to leave any space vacant. In a tree completelv
formed, the wood-branches are pruned at the point where they
begin to diminish in size. But this is not a universal rule, for a
feeble tree should be pruned shorter to give it strength, and a
young and vigorous tree should be pruned much longer. In fruit -
branches, too, prune according to the greater or less degree of vi-
gour apparent in them. Those branches, the eyes ©f which are
accompanied by a wood-bud, may be shortened to two ox four eves;
but the short branches, or spurs, having clusters of eyes, should not
be pruned at all if they have a wood-bud at the extremity. Both,
however, should be cut clean off if the wood-buds perish, as they
would be sterile. When two branches form a fork, cut out the
most feeble. As the fruit-branches bear but once, it is indispen-
sable that they be renewed every year ; and do not, as very unskil-
ful gardeners do, prune very long and suffer the bud at the extre-
mity to furnish the new fruit-branch ; for it inevitably results from
this, that the branch, besides being weak from one end to the other,
will be perfectly barren below the last year's shoot, and will end by
dying at the end of two or three years, during which time it will
have furnished nothing but thin, long, disproportionate and unpro-
ductive twigs; but, by shortening every year the branch that has
borne, and replacing it by one of its own lower buds, vou have
every year good and vigorous wood, and placed as near as possi-
ble to the respective wood-branches. This shortening should be
VI.] TRAINING AND PRUNING. 1G7
performed as soon as the fruit is all gathered. At Moutreuil they
call it the rcinpltici-iiU'nt, or replacing.
2-4!). Some persons train their trees in what is called the fan
form : that is, instead of having hut two mother-hranches, they
will have three or four or even five or six ; but, for simpli-
city's sake, I have given a specimen of a tree trained purely in
the French fashion, leaving two hranches that might have
heen carried on to form this tree in the fun fashion.
According as their mother-hranches are numerous, they are
spread open more or less. The principle is, not to deviate
from the angle of ninety degrees, or right-angle, more than
is necessary for the nailing in of the fruit-hranches between
the secoudarv hranches ; so that the two lower principal, or mo-
ther-hranches, may he horizontal, ami never more inclined.
When you have three or five mother-branches, train the
middle one upright. In other respects prune these mother-
branches as the French do those a la Moutreuil ; excepting that,
as they furnish more, they should be pruned much longer during
the two or three first years.
2,)0. Summer priuumj belongs most particularly to the most
tender of fruit-trees, and, of course, to the peach-tree; I shall,
therefore, treat of it here to finish the suhject of pruning. The
operation is generally performed in the month of May, when the
young shoots are not more than from eight to ten inches long,
and k consists in taking off the superfluous ones. It may be done
by the hand, but it is less dangerous for those that you determine
to leave, to do it with a priming-knife. All the shoots that come
immediately before or immediately behind should be severed, and
those that you leave at the sides will profit by it. Recollect
always that the shoot you save for a wood-branch should be
healthy and vigorous ; and if the one hest suited to your purpose
as to locality be not so, reject it and fix on a lower and healthier.
When the fruit is set, all the shoots proceeding from the bearing
branches should be removed, with the exception of those neigh-
bouring ones which tend to nourish the fruit by drawing the sap
to it, and of those that have been fixed on for the purpose of suc-
ceeding the whole branch. Should all the blossoms of a branch
be sterile, cut it off, leaving only one or two buds.
2")1. NAILING is also an essential part of training. It is per-
formed after the primings both of winter and summer, only thiit
168 FRUITS. [chap.
in the latter, it is not done till the shoots are strong enough to
bear the constraint without danger of breaking. It may be well
deferred, especially in old trees, till the month of July, or even
August ; or better still never to do it till the trees are found to
require it. The object is to keep the branches in their proper and
assigned position, and it is done (when there is no trellis against
the wall) by means of shreds, and nails driven into the wall, by
which the branches are supported. When there is a trellis, you
tie with matting. To nail well, you must bend the shoots and
branches without effort, without making sharp angles, and yet
make them stretch to their utmost in the form of a wide V. So
manage it that each branch and its shoots shall assume the form
of the tree ; so that every part of the tree be furnished, the mid-
dle, the sides, and the upper and lower parts ; and so that all the
ramifications of the tree be spaced according to their size, with-
out confusion or entanglement, and that the eye may follow them
with distinctness.
252. Before I conclude my instructions relative to the pruning
of the peach against the wall, let me speak of an operation which
is not probably of modern invention, and which is applicable to
all fruit-trees : it is called the annulary incision, or operation of
ringing, which is the cutting out of a narrowish strip of bark all
round the collar of a tree, or round one of its branches only. It
may be done with any sharp instrument. The annulary incision
is performed a few days before the blossoming of a fruit-tree, and,
by retarding the flow of sap, causes it to tend to fruit; but fine
fruit obtained in this manner weakens the tree or the branch on
which it is borne ; and according as the plant is more or less
strong and the operation is renewed more or less often, it is sure
to perish. This operation may be performed on plants or parts of
plants of which the too vigorous sap thwarts the plans of the gar-
dener in the training of his trees ; but let him consider it only as a
remedy against superabounding sap, let him be cautious in the use
of it even then, and let him never cut a wider piece out than will
close again in the same summer, whkh would be about half an
inch.
253. Having now done with the wall-tree training and pruning,
with the exception of what is to be said as peculiarly applicable to
each sort of tree, the rules for pruning and training which differ
from those for the peach, and which additional observations are,
VI.] TRAINING AND PRUNING. 16f)
a< I before observed, to come under the names of the different trees
respectively, I shall proceed to speak of the mode of managing
those fruit-trees which are not placed against a wall. There are
divers modes of training, the pyramid, the goblet, the bush, the
ftalf-xlundard, the archiny, and, which is the great method of
all. cs/Hi/itr, after which will come the instructions for rearing of
standards for the orchard. I shall give my reasons for preferring
the old-fashioned espalier to every other species of training of trees
not against a wall, and also my reasons for wholly excluding all
standards from the garden. I think all the other methods, except
the espalier, of training fruit-trees (for a garden) very had : I have
never seen them attended with success, to say nothing of the irre-
gularity of their appearance, and the various inconveniences which
attend them. Nevertheless, I will mention them here one by one,
that the reader may, if he choose, make use of them.
254. PYRAMID FORM. The first year, prune the graft at
5 or 6 inches from the bottom, saving 3 or 4 eyes to form lateral
branches and to carry up the stem ; but these first lateral branches
are essential, for they will furnish the recpaisite abundance of wood
below, which, when the tree has obtained a certain height, cannot
be obtained, and yet which is absolutely necessary to the beauty
as well as utility of the pyramid. Suffer no other shoots this year
than from the 3 or 4 buds mentioned above. Stop the upright
stem every year when it has shot to the length of 12 or 18 inches,
and this will force it to send out every year a set of lateral shoots,
and of these you make your election of v3 or 4 to save. At the
pruning time, shorten the lateral branches more or less according
to the vigour of the tree and the just distribution of sap amongst
all the branches. If you wish to raises, branch, prune at an upper
bud ; and at a lower bud to lowers, branch. If you wish to cause
a branch to tend to the right or the left, choose a bud situated on
the right or the left side to prune at. Jn either case to prevent
the branch going straight, you have nothing to do but prune a
little way above the bud. Thus the training continues; and, as
the lowermost branches are always a year older than the upper,
this gradation should be preserved in the length of the branches,
which of course must diminish by stages all the way up, from
the base to the summit. This sort of training conduces at once
to the fi uitfulness and to the duration of the tree.
235. THE GOBLET OR CUP FORM is very little other than
1/0 FRUITS. [CHAP.
an espalier, but of which you bring the extremities of the two
sides round in a circle to meet each other, and to form a large
vase or goblet open at the top and tapering down to an inverted
cone at bottom. To procure this, prune the young tree so as to
have 4 or 5 branches as near to one another as possible at the
top of the stem. Manage these principal branches as you do those
of the wall-tree ; but rub or cut off all shoots or buds that are
putting forth towards the inside of the goblet, as these would
soon fill it and. destroy the form. The principal branches are
brought into form by means of one or two hoops, as occasion
requires.
256. BUSH TRAINING is rarely exercised excepting in the
case of dwarf apple-trees, of which the gardeners will sometimes
have a square. It is, suffering the tree to take its own natural
form, and pruning only for the purpose of keeping up an equal
quantity of the wood and bearing branches.
257. HALF- STANDARDS.— If the plant have been grafted
where it is to stand, nothing can be done the first year ; but if it
be a young transplanted tree, shorten the graft down to 2 or 3
buds. The next year choose the strongest bud to lengthen the
stem, and pinch the others off at about 6 inches length to favour
the one you have saved, and which is to form the trunk of the
tree. If, out of this, there come lateral shoots, prune them short,
in little stumps, that is, at one or two buds, and let them remain
till the autumnal pruning, when you must cut these off close to
the stem as well as those that you pinched off to favour the first
saved shoot. And thus you continue heightening the tree more
and more every year, till it shall have reached the height you
wish, whether of standard or half-standard. If, before it get to
the height you desire, it should fork, pinch off the weakest of the
two shoots as soon as it is 3 or 4 inches long, and cut it clean out
at the winter pruning succeeding ; or if it should become distorted
or should break off by some accident, either pinch off, or cut,
immediately below the damaged part, and in the winter pruning,
shorten it down to the strongest bud below that you have, one
that you have been favouring for the purpose since you perceived
the mischief above, and that will supply you with a fresh unda-
maged stem. If the tree arrive at the height you desire in the
summer, pinch it off a little above that point, and cut down to the
exact height you wish it in your first succeeding winter pruning j
VI.] TUAINlNC AND PRUNING. 171
and then cut off again all the other shoots of the summer that von
have before only pinched off. Then in the following Bprfag,
having now got the trunk of your tree, watch narrowly the shoots
that the last year's wood will send out, and choose from among
them the three or four most vigorous and most equally placed of
them for principal branches, and pinch off all the rest as he-
fore directed. When these branches send out their shoots, pinch
off those that come too close to one another, and prune them
close in winter. In the autumn, prune the principal branches and
their shoots that are designed to he secondary branches, precisely
as we have directed with regard to wall-trees above; and when
you have done so two or three years, you may let the tree alone to
nature, only cutting out the dead branches as thev occur. A tree
well formed, and in good ground well cultivated, will last more
than a century. Sometimes a vigorous branch will do harm to
more fruitful ones, and yet you may, for sound reasons, wish to
preserve it. In such a case, slacken its vigour by pruning it very
long, or even by ringing it.
258. ARCHING is done by bending in the form of a haif-
hoop, more or less open, the branches, and in this way you bring
them pointing towards the earth. This situation retards the cir-
culation of the sap, and forces it to betake itself to leaf buds and
to transform them into wood-buds.
259. ESPALIER. This is the form which, in mv opinion, is
the only one suited for the open ground of a garden. The fanciful
affair of arching, for vines or any other tree, is more a matter of
pleasure-garden than of kitchen garden: the other forms are in-
tended to promote bearing, and they are all vastly inferior to the
espalier in this respect. Apricots obtained in any way except
against a wall or a house are seldom good for much ; there are
a few of the sorts which will bear in other situations ; but the fruit
is good for very little. Apples, pears, plums, cherries, and
quinces and medlars, all do exceedingly well as espaliers ; and it
is notorious, that the fruit is always larger, and of finer flavour
when the tree is trained in this form, than when the limbs are suf-
fered to go in an upright direction. There are several sorts of
pears which will be very fine on espaliers on the very same spot
of ground, where they will scarcely come to anything like perfec-
tion on a standard tree or upon any tree the limbs of which are
suffered to go upright.
172 FRUITS. [chap.
260. Espaliers are managed in the following manner : Suppose
it to be an apple-tree which has been grafted in the manner be-
fore directed, and which has a good strong shoot coming up from
the graft. Take the tree up, and plant it in the manner directed
under the head of Planting in this chapter. Whether planted in
the fall or in the spring, let the tree stand in the spring till the
buds begin to break, then cut the shoot down to within three buds
of the bottom. Cut sloping, and let the cut end pretty near to the
point where the top bud of the tree is coming out. These three
buds will send forth three shoots, and all the three will take an
upright direction. About the middle of July, take the two bottom
shoots, one of which will be on one side of the stem or trunk, as
it must now be called, and the other on the other side, place a
couple of little stakes to each of these shoots, and tie the shoots
down to the stakes so that they may lie in a horizontal direction,
suffering the top shoot to go on ; but, about the latter end of July,
take the top off from that shoot. Thus, when winter comes, you
will have one upright shoot and two horizontal ones. In the
spring, cut off the top shoot again, leaving five buds j two of
which you will cut out in order to prevent them from sending out
shoots. You will again have two side-shoots, and the top shoot
will again be going on upright. You must now have longer
stakes in order to give these side shoots a horizontal direction ;
but the stakes that serve for the new shoots will serve also for
those of the last year ; but then, as the shoots of the last year will
be going on, there must be additional stakes to tie them to. The
next year you proceed in the same manner ; and if you do the
work carefully, you will finally have these lateral shoots in perfectly
regular order, and they should be at about from seven to nine
inches asunder, the lowest within a few inches of the ground, and
the highest just according to your fancy ; but it is not desirable to
carry the tree to a height beyond that of about five or six feet.
As these side-shoots or limbs increase in size and length, they will
need loftier and stouter stakes ; and this, like the growing of peas
in a neat manner, and to produce fruit most abundant in quantity
and most excellent in quality ', this staking, as in the case of peas,
has been the great obstacle to the cultivation of espaliers. A
stake of any ordinary wood will last not above two years, and
especially in garden ground : it rots off at the point where it be-
gins to touch the earth, and there is an everlasting trouble and
M.] TRAINING AND PRUNING. 1 7'»
expense. To have espaliers, therefore, and to have them in neat
order, the old fashion vrai to have stakes of spine oak, an inch
one wav, and two inches the other ; such stakes would last ton or
fifteen years, according to the wetness or dryness of the land.
The best stakes would he the trunks of young locust-trees, planted
within two feet of each other, and suffered to grow to the height
of about twelve or fourteen feet. if They would do this, in good
ground, in the course of four or five years. Cut down in winter,
and the branches trimmed off close, they would make espalier
stakes to last for a good long life-time. While the limbs
of espaliers are small, they should be fastened to the stakes by
good fresh matting, or bass, as it is called, to be occasionally re-
newed : when the limbs get stout, I have seen brass wire used ;
though, perhaps, the matting might still be sufficient ; for, when
the limb has once got to be an inch or two through, it wants little
supporting, except merelv towards its point, or when heavily laden
with fruit. Espaliers are to be planted in rows if there be a con-
siderable number of them in a garden ; and they should not stand
nearer, if intended to be permanent trees, than at tiventy feet from
each other. That they should be planted in straight line is
obvious enough. The best situation for them is along by the sides
of walks and not more than about three feet distant from the
edge of the walk. Their symmetry is very beautiful ; and, what
can be more beautiful than an avenue of fruit-trees in bloom, and
trained in form so regular and neat ? The crops they bear are pro-
digious compared with those of standard trees upon the same spot.
I remember a gentleman who had an espalier apple-tree of about
twenty feet in length, and two very large standard trees of the
same sort of fruit, in the same garden and very near to the same
spot. All the three trees were well laden with fruit : I stood
looking at them for some time, making an estimate of the crop ;
and I came to the conclusion that the espalier had more fruit than
both the great standards put together, while its fruit was of double
the size, or nearly so. I asked him why he did not chop down
those two great trees that shaded and spoiled so much of his
garden, and plant a couple of espaliers. He had the new-fashioned
taste of despising the espaliers, and talked of grubbing this parti-
cular one up. In remonstrating with him, I said that the espalier
had a greater quantity of fruit upon it then than both the other
trees. This appeared to him to be so monstrous, that he offered
i/4 FRUITS. [chap.
to bet me a hundred to one, or more, against my opinion. I de-
clined the bet ; but he promised, that, when he gathered the fruit,
which was to be done in a few days, he would have it measured
and give me an account of the result, which, to his utter astonish-
ment, he found to be that the espalier contained half a bushel
more than both the other trees put together. The eye always
deceives itself in comparing things irregularly placed with things
placed with regularity. So much, then, for the training of espa-
liers. The pruning ; that is to say, the pruning of the limbs, is
as follows. Apples, and indeed all the other trees which 1 have
spoken of to be planted for espaliers, bear upon spurs, some
shorter, and some longer; not like peach-trees which have their
fruit upon shoots of the last year. Sometimes, indeed, apples,
and these other trees, will bear upon the last year's wood, but
generally they bear upon spurs, which come out of the sides of
the limb itself until it gets to be very large, and afterwards come
out of the lower buds of little side-shoots that have been cut off;
and these spurs last for a great many years. When you gather
an apple in the fall, you will, if the tree be in vigour, see a blos-
som-bud, ready, coming out of the same spur, to bear the next
year ; and I ought to observe here, that the greatest possible care
should be taken (as it never is) not to pull off the spur when you
pull off the apple. Gentlemen who are curious in these things
actually cut off cherries with a scissors, except the morellos, and
one or two other sorts, which bear pretty generally on the last
year's wood, to avoid the danger of pulling off the spurs. It being
the fact, that the trees bear upon spurs, there needs no new sup-
ply of limbs or of shoots ; and, therefore, the little side-shoots that
come out of the limbs ought to be cut clean out about the latter
end of July, unless there be a deficiency of spurs upon the limb ;
and, in that case, the little side-shoots should be cut off, leaving
one bud, or perhaps two, if the joints be short, and these will
frequently send out spurs. Let us now go back to the second
vear after planting the tree, when we had got two lateral shoots
running horizontally, and one upright shoot. Each of these lateral
shoots will send out two side-shoots near their point, and one at
their point, to go straight forward : that one is to be suffered to
go on, but the others must be shortened to one bud : the same
thing will happen next year, when the same operation is to be
perforated, and at the same season : thus, at last, you have a limb
VI.] TRAINING AND PRUNING. 175
ten feet long, furnished with spurs from one end to the other.
When your room will suffer you to carry the limb no further, you
cut off the point. Let any one judge, then, what a saving of
room here is ; how much sun and air, and how regularly admitted,
compared with what is to he expected from the half standard or
any other form. How are you to prune in this careful and yet
•My manner a tree of irregular shape ? My real opinion is, that
an acre of ground well stocked with espaliers, the rows at ten
feet apart, and the plants at twenty feet apart in the row, would
produce, on an average of years, three times the weight of fruit to
be obtained from trees in any other form : besides which, the
ground between the rows might, a third part of it at least, pro-
duce cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli, crops of any sort that did
not mount too high. The great fault in orchards is, a want of
pruning ; and, indeed, such an operation on standard trees is next
to impossible. People pretend to object to the formality of the
espalier. Just as if formality were an objection in a kitchen-
garden where all is straight lines, and must be straight lines.
The little border between the espalier trees and the walk should
not be crowded with plants of any kind, and should have no plants
at all that grow to more than six or seven inches high. On the
other side of the espaliers nothing should grow within about four
feet ; but, how small, still, is the space of ground which even a
large espalier would occupy ! Very little more than half a rod,
while vou can have no tree in any other shape that will not occupy
and render useless five times the quantity of ground to produce
the same quantity of fruit; and if I were to say ten times I
should be much nearer the mark. Then, there is the inconve-
nience of fruit-trees in all the other forms. They must stand at
a considerable distance from the walk, or they extend their
branches over it. It is a circle of ground that they occupy or
shade; and the plat in which they stand can only be partially
cultivated for other things. If they mount above the reach of the
hand, to get at the fruit is a business of great trouble ; and, after
all, there can be no regular and true pruning ; no minute inspec-
tion : no picking off of caterpillars with exactness : no detection
and destruction of other insects ; and, in the case of cherries,
what a difficult business it must always be effectually to protect
the fruit against birds on any other tree except wall or espalier !
I have seen the thing attempted some hundreds of times, and
17<> FRUITS. [CHAP.
never saw it effected in my life. Monstrous must be the expense
and trouble to keep the net extended all round and held clear off
the tree at top, where the finest cherries always are. In short,
the net lies upon the top of the tree ; birds come and eat
the fine cherries there, and leave you the sour ones be-
neath. An espalier, on the contrary, is, with the aid of a few
long stakes, and a good net, protected as completely as if it were
within a hand-glass. Espaliers were always the great reliance of
our gardens until within the last sixty or seventy years. An ob-
jection is made to their formality, their stiffness of appearance !
Alas ! the objection is to what is deemed the trouble, or labour ;
and, Swift observes, that labour ispain, and that, in all his family,
from his great-grandmother to himself, nobody liked pain. This,
however, is a great error ; for, as in an infinite number of cases,
some of which occur to every man almost every day of his life,
pains-taking, at the first, produces ease and leisure in the sequel.
261. STANDARD TREES.— After what I have said, I do
most anxiously hope, that, if any gentleman ever should make a
garden after the plan that I am recommending, he never will
suffer it to be disfigured by the folly of a standard-tree, which, the
more vigorous its growth, the more mischievous that growth to the
garden. But, an orchard is another thing ; and especially if that
orchard be to be a pasture as well as an orchard. In this case, it
is necessary to keep the branches of the trees out of the reach of
cattle ; and they must have a clear trunk to a considerable height.
The usual wav of going to work is this ; to purchase trees with a
clear trunk of the length which is desired : to plant the trees at
suitable distances, and to shorten the shoots of their heads at the
time of planting. A dreadful amputation of roots must take place.
It is impossible that there should be a due supply of sap for the
first summer at least; the bark becomes clung to the wood. The
shoots that come out the first summer are poor feeble twigs ; the
trees, if unpropped, are blown nearly out of the ground before the '
summer is over ; therefore, a propping takes place; sometimes
with one stake, hay-bands and cord ; sometimes with two : there
must be three, to keep the tree upright, so that here is a tripod
with a stump coming up in the middle. The tree gets something
in the head, and, at least, a parcel of leaves; the wind works the
trunk about in spite of the bandages, and, nine times out of ten, a
breaking of the bark and the foundation of a canker takes place.
VI.] TRAINING AND PRUNING. 177
Iii short, the tree must he supported by something like carpenter-
ing work ; or it is sure to lean on one side ; and every reader must
know that a rarer sight is hardly to he seen in Bngland than an
apple-tree with an upright stem. Indeed, more than one half of
such trees totally fail, and those that do not, are so crippled in
their roots that they become poor weakly things, and, if not un-
productive altogether, bear very mean fruit. The true way to
have a fine orchard would be, to plant the trees when young, hav-
ing been previously moved, as directed under the head of Plant-
ing in this Chapter. After planting, the trees should he cut down
just before the buds begin to burst, to one bud, or two, at most,
for fear of accidents. If to two buds, only one should be suffered
to send up its shoot. All things having been done rightly, this
shoot would he strong, and fed by a root which would have fairly
started in the progress with itself. To insure stoutness of trunk,
take care that no side-shoots be suffered to remain for any length
of time, even the first summer. The second spring after planting,
cut the new shoot down to within three buds of its bottom : it will
send out three shoots, rub off the two lower ones, and suffer the top
one to go on ; and this shoot will now, in good ground, attain the
height of a man's head. The next spring, shorten down to four or
five or six shoots, according to the strength of the trunk, and dur-
ing the summer, take off the side-shoots ; and you will have in the
fall, a trunk seven or eight feet high. That is the tree. Nature
will teach it, after that, how to form its head ; and your business
will be to keep the inside of the head clear by cutting off the
shoots that there cross or interfere with each other. Apple-trees,
and the same may be said of all other fruit-trees, would have u
straight trunks as the oaks in the weald of Surrey, if this method of
planting orchards were pursued. But it will he objected, how are
these trees to be protected from cattle during their growth ? Why,
if vou must have the pasture, and still wish to have straight-
trunked, wide- spreading, healthy and durable trees, you must sur-
round each of them with an effectual fence to prevent the possibi-
lity of cattle reaching either trunk or branches. It is a great ob-
ject to have a good orchard, or it is not : if it be. then this expense
is not a thing to be thought of; and, if it be not, why plant any
trees at all ? The truth is, however, that, if you reckon the ex-
pense of great trees, the stakes and the bandages, the loss of many
of the trees, and the bushes or other miserable protections, which,
n
17S FRUITS. [CHAP.
after all, you resort to, and are compelled to resort to, to keep the
sheep from harking the trunks, or the cows from robbing them to
pieces ; and particularly if you reckon the loss that you sustain in
the tardy arrival of the crop ; if you reckon these expenses and
these losses, they verv far exceed in amount the expenses of the
way that I recommend. The usual practice in America very much
resemhles the practice here, and is attended with much ahout the
same consequences. Those who do the thing well there, break up
the pasture, and cultivate grain of different sorts, or Indian corn,
until the trees have attained a size to set all cattle at defiance.
The finest orchard that I ever saw belonged to Mr. Platt in the.
township of North Hempstead in Long Island. The rows of trees
were at about thirty feet apart, and the trees at about twenty-five
feet apart in the row, the trees of one row placed opposite the in-
tervals of the other row. This gave him about six hundred trees
upon ten acres of land. When I saw the trees, they had attained
pretty nearly their full size, and had come to within a few feet of
causing the extreme branches of one tree to touch those of another.
It is the fashion in that country to shake down the apples that are
intended for cider, and to gather those onlv that are intended for
eating. As soon as the apples are shaken down, they are put up
into heaps in the form of haycocks, in which state they lie till they
are removed to be made into cider ; and I remember seeing them
in this state in Mr. Plait's orchard, the cocks being as thick upon
the ground as those of a middling crop of hay. This gentleman,
from whose orchard came the first cuttings that I received from
America, had a very pretty nursery of his own, and solely for his
own use. In that he propagated all his fruit-trees, and he planted
them out very small in his orchards, taking care, when he sowed
the orchards with grain, not to suffer the wheat or the rye or the
oats to stand too close to the young trees. After the trees get to
be stout, and able to resist cattle, the land is laid down for grass,
and in so hot a country, the shade of the trees is no injury to the
grass ; but appears to be the contrary ; for the cattle there will
feed under the shade of trees, when they will not feed elsewhere.
The after -pi lining of orchard-trees consists in constantly taking off
all shoots that come out anywhere in the middle of the tree, and in
carefully cutting awav every bit of dead wood, whether occasioned
by blight, by wind, or by anv other cause. As to the cultivation of
orchards, when the trees begin to give out bearing, or to bear poor
VI.] TRAINING AND PRUNING. 179
or small fruit, thev, In America, first put manure to a good distance
round the tree ; but, they are soon after that compelled to plough
up the whole of the land, to manure it, and to take a crop or two
of grain, most frequently buck-wheat, ploughing always as deep as
thev can : after this, they lay the land down with grass again ; and
thus thev keep up the hearing of their orchards. Mr. Platt had
a curious mode of making strong cider : in the month of January
or February he placed a number of hogsheads of cider upon stands
out of doors. The frost turned to ice the upper part of the con-
tents of the hogshead, and a tap drew off from the bottom the part
which was not frozen. This was the spirituous part; and was as
strong as the verv strongest of beer that can be made. The frost
had no power over this part ; but the lighter part, which was at the
top, it froze into ice. This, when thawed, was weak cider. This
method of getting strong cider would not do in a country like this,
where the frosts are never sufficiently severe. As to the sorts of
apples and of other fruit-trees, they will be spoken of under the
respective heads in the Alphabetical List.
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF FRUITS.
262. APPLE. — Apples are usually grafted on crab-stocks ; but
when you do not want the trees to grow so very tall and large, it
is better to raise the stocks from apple-pips ; because they cer-
tainlv come into bearing sooner. Some graft apples upon stocks
raided from lavers ; and these bring trees to bear quicker still.
The lavers being raised in the manner before- mentioned, from the
limbs and shoots of apple-trees. See the word layer in the Index.
Evcrvthing having before been said relative to the propagating, the
planting, the training, and the pruning of apple-trees, there
remains to be spoken of here nothing but the different sorts. To
give an opinion as to the best sorts would perhaps be useless,
where the sorts are so numerous, and when tastes are so different.
1 shall, therefore, with regard to eating apples, simply give,
from Mr. AlfoN's Hortlte Keweniig, a list of t'ne apples grown
in the King's gardens : 1 shall then give the names of some of
N 2
180 FRUITS. [CHAP.
the American apples of the eating kind ; after which I shall
make an observation or two upon cider apples. Those of
the King's gardens are as follows : Borstoff Apple, Golden
Harvey, Golden Rennett, Golden Russet, Juneting, Margill, Com-
mon Nonpareil, Scarlet Nonpareil, Nonsuch, Brookes' Pippin,
Cockle Pippin, Court-of-Wick Pippin, Downton Pippin, Fearn's
Pippin, Frankland's Pippin, Golden Pippin, Padley's Pippin,
Red Ingestrie Pippin, Ribston Pippin, Robinson's Pippin, Ronald's
Pippin, Summer Pippin, Spice Pippin, Pomme d'Api, Pomme
Noire, Pomme Grise, Quarenden, Sack-and- Sugar, Syke House,
Bigg's Nonsuch, Summer Codlin, Autumn Codlin, Spring Codlin,
Costard, French Crab, French Minchin, Hawthorn Dean, Kirke's
Scarlet Admirable, Lemon Pippin, Miniers Dumpling, Norfolk
Beaufin, Autumn Pearmain, Scarlet Pearmain, Winter Pearmain.
On the American apples I can offer some opinion. The earliest is
Woolley's Summer Pearmain ; and I call it Woolley's, because Mr.
Woolley of North Hempstead introduced me to the knowledge of
it, and gave me some of the fruit in the year IS 17. It is
a long apple, shaped somewhat like the old English pearmain,
beautifully striped red and white, and ripe in the month of
August. The apple which succeeds this is the Fall Pippin,
and it continues to be good to eat until the middle of No-
vember. Then comes the Greening, which continues to be very
good to eat until February; and then comes the Newtown Pippin,
which, if properly preserved, is very good to eat until the month of
June. For my own part, I should wish for no sorts but these, ex-
cept I added Conklins Pie Apple, the reputation of which is very
great. There is the Doctor Apple of exceeding beauty, and very
good until late in November ; but, indeed, after January comes,
there is no apple wanted either for eating raw or cooking, but the
Newtown Pippin, which, to the qualities of fine relish and long
keeping, adds the other great quality of being a surprisingly great
bearer. It hardly ever totally fails, even when other trees do ;
and it generally has a large crop. I have a tree in mv garden at
Kensington, which was covered with fruit in 1826. It stood
against a wall, and I was afraid that it would be killed by a foul
drain oozing through the wall from the out-premiscs of one of my
neighbours: I moved it, therefore, in the month of April, 1827, to
another part of the garden, and, large as it was, it is now (May
1S2S) well loaded with fruit. 1 nevei saw anything more beauti-
vi.] r.rsT of fruits. 181
ful than the tree now is, whether in shoot, leaf, or fruit. The cut-
tings, which came from Mr. Plait at North Hempstead, were put
upon the several little limbs of an old dwarf standard-tree ; but the
whole now appears as if it had been all from a young original stock.
There are numerous sorts of excellent American apples ; but I do
not think it necessary to speak of any others. Something, how-
ever, may be said about apples for cooking. There are our own
cod/ins, which come earliest, Conk/ins Pie Apple I have men-
tioned, the Russettings are very fine for this purpose, and they
keep a long while : the Spitzenberg Pippin is a fine large apple
for this purpose, keeps through the greater part of the winter, and
bears surprisingly. Jn Herefordshire the apples most highly
esteemed for this purpose are the Quilling, or Queening, and the
Boovey Red Streak, they are both very.fine apples, but particularly
the former. There are some excellent sorts in Devonshire ; but,
as to sorts, people will generallv be directed by their taste, or by
the fashion of the neighbourhood. With regard to cider apples,
it would be useless to speak of sorts, and rather beside my sub-
ject, seeing that I am treating of things not to make liquor of, but
to be used for the table. To preserve apples throughout the
winter is a thing of great consequence. First, the sort is to be
attended to j for an apple that is not of a keeping nature will not
keep. If the quantity be small, I have found that wrapping each
apple in a piece of paper and packing in a chest is the best way.
In all cases, they should be carefully hand-gathered, laid in the
basket which you use in the gathering, and not tossed into it ; for,
the smallest bruise leads with certainty to rottenness. They
should be quite ripe before they be gathered ; and yet, when quite
ripe, they fall with the least shake of the limb. Here is one of
the great advantages of espaliers, the limbs of which cannot be
shaken with the wind ; while, as every one knows, much about
half the crop is shaken down by the wind 'from the greater part of
the standard-trees long before the apples are ripe. When apples
are gathered, they should be laid upon cloths or mats in the sun,
or in some dry airy place, until they become perfectly dry in every
part of them. If the quantity be large, they ought to be laid
upon a floor or upon broad fruit-shelves ; but not one upon the
other. Clean straw laid under them is very good ; but I have
found a single new mat to be better : they should be looked over
frequently to see if they begin to rot, and such as do begin ought
1S2 FRUITS. [CHAP.
to be immediately taken away. When there is frost, all that you
have to do is, to keep the apples in a state of total darkness until
some days after a complete thaw has come. In America they are
frequently frozen as hard as stones : if they thaw in the light,
they rot ; but if they thaw in darkness, they not only do not rot,
but lose very little of their original flavour. This may be new to
the English reader ; but he may depend upon it that the state-
ment is correct.
263. APRICOT. — With regard to the propagation, the plant-
ing, and the training of the tree, the instructions have already-
been given under the head of Training and Pruning. The pruning
differs from the peach in that the apricot generally bears upon
spurs, some of which are formed by nature, and others may be
formed in the manner directed in the case of the espalier apple.
The apricot does not require so much attention as the peach and
the nectarine in the providing of new wood ; because those trees
bear only upon the last year's wood ; but, occasionally new shoots
ought to be laid in to supply the place of branches taken off by
the blast, which very frequently takes off a whole branch, and
even a whole limb, without any apparent cause. The apricot-tree
is not subject to mildew, and to the various blights to which the
peach and other fruit-trees are subject ; but it is subject to this
blast, of which I have never heard a reasonable cause assigned,.
The. proper situation for the apricot-tree is a wall facing the east
or the west. Facing the south is as good, perhaps, but that situ-
ation is wanted for the peaches, the nectarines, and the vines. The
apricot is a prodigious bearer, and of life equal to that of an oak.
It will bear, and bear prodigiously too, after the trunk is perfectly
hollow, and there is nothing left of it but the mere shell. It is
well known that the young fruit, when of the size of a half-grown
walnut, is used for the making of tarts, and for other purposes ;
and, though, in mv opinion, inferior to green gooseberries, is more
highly esteemed, because it is more rare. Whether part of the
fruit be gathered for this purpose or not, courage should not be
wanting to thin the fruit so as not to leave it at nearer than six
inches at the most from each other upon the tree. A tree of eight
feet high, and spreading seven feet from each side of the trunk,
will cover a space of a hundred and twelve square feet : the fruit,
at six inches apart, would be four apricots to a foot, that is to say,
four hundred and forty-eight apricots upon the tree, or pretty
VI.] LIOT OF MK71TS. 183
nearly thirty-eight dozen. It is not to ho supposed, however, that
the firtfit would he distributed equally over every part of the tree ;
hut, suppose you have half the numher, what prodigious quantities
must come from either of the end walls of the garden ! There is
no greater error than that of permitting trees to hear too great a
quantity of fruit, Generally speaking, you have the same weight
in half the numher that you have in the whole numher, if too
numerously left : then, you prevent the tree from hearing the next
year ; for it has not strength to provide for blossoms, while it is
strained to its utmost in the hearing of fruit. This being a mat-
ter of so much importance, and applicahle to all sorts of fruit-
trees, I heg the reader to ohserve how fully this opinion is sup-
ported hy the two instances which I am ahout to cite. Under
the head Cutu miser, I have ohserved (and the fact is notorious to
all gardeners), that if you leave one fruit to stand for seed, the
plant instantly ceases to hear: it is the same with kidnev-heans.
"Gather cucumhers and have cucumhers, gather kidney -beans
and have kidney-beans," are maxims as old as the hills. These
are annual plants ; and, therefore, the consequences of causing
them to make the grand exertion of ripening their fruit are appa-
rent the same year. As to fruit-trees, it is notorious that, in this
country, orchard trees seldom bear great crops two years running j
hut here the matter is irregular owing to the blights, and, there-
fore, the effect of over-bearing is a fact not so well established as
it is in America where there are no blights. In that country, the
thing is so well known, that nothing is more common than for a
man, going into one part of the countrv from another, to ask whe-
ther that is the bearing year in that neighbourhood ; and it never
yet was known that two bearing years succeeded each other with
regard to the same tree. Some sorts of apples (and the Fall Pip-
pin is one of them) bear upon some limbs of the tree one year,
and upon other limbs of the tree another year ; and you will fre-
quently see a limb or two loaded with fruit while not an apple is
to be seen on any other part of the tree. This doctrine, therefore
I take to be firmly established. With regard to apples and fruit
of ahout the same value, the consequence is not very great ■ but
in the case of wall-fruit, you want a crop every year ; and, there-
fore, you must take away one year that which would prevent
bearing the next. Cherries may, perhaps, be an exception here •
because they take care to make the superabundant fruit drop off
184 FRUITS. [chap.
at a very early age ; but, then, there is another consideration with
regard to which even cherries form no exception ; and that is,
that, if the fruit be too numerous, it is smaller than it ought to be.
Perhaps in hardly any case, the greater number produces any
thing like a proportionate weight to the smaller number : and, as
to the quality, the superiority of the small number is great indeed.
The apricot should not be gathered until it be almost ready to
fall from the tree ; and, if the sort be good, it is preferred by many
persons to the peach. As to sorts, the following are those men-
tioned by Mr. Aiton in the Hortus Keivensis : the Black, the
Brussels, the Masculine, the Moor Park, and the Royal Orange.
For my part, 1 recommend the Moor Park, and the Turkey. The
former is fine, and a good bearer : the latter not a good bearer,
but superlatively fine. Mr. Marshall recommends the Breda,
to ripen in September. Tbe Masculine, the Brussels, and the
Black, are cultivated onlv because they come early : they are in
my opinion very poor fruit : they might be planted as espaliers in
very warm situations ; but are certainly unworthy of a good wall.
Besides the use of apricots as fruit from the tree, they make the
most delicious of all preserves ; and, while in the season of their
ripeness, mixing them with apples in pies and tarts, make a great
improvement in the article. The apricot is, on all accounts, a
tree deserving of the greatest attention : it usually blows in
February, or March at the latest, and ought to be pruned before
the blossom buds begin to burst. As to the protecting of the
blossoms from frost, 1 shall give general directions for that under
the head of Peach.
264. BARBERRY.— This fruit is well known. The tree or
shrub on which it grows is raised from the seed or from suckers or
layers. It needs little care ; and should stand in the outer part
of the garden, and in the shade of the hedge j for, the hot sun
tends to prevent the fruit from growing large.
265. CHERRY. — Cherries are budded or grafted upon stocks
raised from cherrv-stones, of the manner of raising which stocks I
have spoken under the bead of Propagation. If you wish to
have the cherry-tree for a wall or an espalier, the stocks should be
raised from the stones of the Morello, or the May-Duke. As to
the management of the tree in its early stages, and the planting of
it out, directions have been given under the head of Planting.
Cherry-trees, except the Morello and one or two more, bear upon
VI.] LIST OF FRUITS. 185
spurs ; and great care should be taken in the forming and the pre-
serving of these spurs, all the rules for doing which have been
mentioned under the head of espalier apple. Cherry-trees do ex-
ceedingly well as espaliers ; and, as standards, though they bear
prodigiously, the crop is for the birds and not for the gardener.
As espaliers, they may, as I have before observed, be most conve-
niently covered with a net. In the gathering, too, the espalier
form is of great advantage : the fruit may be clipped off with a
sharp-pointed scissors, without exposing the spurs to injury. As
to the sorts of cherries, those mentioned in the Hortus Kewensis,
are as follows : — All Saints, Bigarreau, Elton, Carnation, Croivn,
Kentish, May -Duke, Late-Duke, Morel lo, Ronald's Superbe, Har-
rison's Heart, Black Heart, White Heart. The Kentish cherry,
good for very little, is the earliest ; the May -Duke the next; and
then come the others. The May-Duke is one of the finest of all
the cherries, and is the only one made use of in forcing. Tf suf-
fered to hang until it be quite ripe, it becomes nearly black, and
then it is better, perhaps, than any other cherry. Besides these
garden cherries, there is the little black cherry, which are vulgarly
called merries, by a corruption of the French word merise. This
is the cherry of the common people, and is too well known to need
any particular description. The Bigarreaus are very large and
very fine ; but they require a good wall, or a very warm situation
as espaliers.
266. CHESTNUT.— This is an inhabitant of the woods. It is
generally called the Spanish-chestnut : those from America grow
to a greater height, but have smaller, though sweeter, fruit.
Chestnuts are raised from the seed ; though to have the very fine
ones that grow in Brittany, the cuttings are generally got from
that country, and put upon chestnut stocks in England. To pre-
serve chestnuts, so as to have them to sow in- the spring, or to eat
through the winter, you must make them perfectly dry after they
come out of their green husk ; then put them into a box or a bar-
rel mixed with, and covered over by, fine and dry sand, three gal-
lons of sand to one gallon of chestnuts. I f there be maggots in any
of the chestnuts, they will come out of the chestnuts and work up
through the sand to get to the air ; and thus you have your chest-
nuts sweet and sound and fresh. To know whether chestnuts will
(/roii', toss them into water : those that swim will not grow. To
raise a chestnut-tree with a straight stem or trunk, follow precisely
18G FRUITS. [chap.
the directions given for the planting and raising of orchard-
trees.
267. CRANBERRY.— This fruit is not much cultivated in
England, notwithstanding its excellent qualities in the making of
tarts, and in the making of sauce to he eaten with mutton or
venison. The finest cranberries come from America, where the
plants creep about upon the ground in the swamps. If cultivated
in England, thev must grow in some wet place, and be kept clear
of weeds : the plant creeps over the ground, like other creeping
plants j and I saw them bearing very well by the side of a running-
stream at Aldbury in Surrey. Cranberries make an excellent pre-
serve, and they may be kept throughout the winter in their natural
state, either laid in a heap in a dry room, or put into a barrel
amongst water. I have imported them from America, sometimes
barrelled up in water, and sometimes not ; and always sound and
good.
26S. CURRANT. — This, though a low shrub, bears a fruit at
once popular, plentiful, and excellent in its qualities ; and it is
one of the great fruits of England, though not the same in many
other countries. It is raised with the greatest facility by cuttings
of the last year's wood, taken off in February, and planted in a
cool place after the manner directed under the head of cuttings,
which word see in the Index. The cutting gets roots the first sum-
mer, and the next fall or spring it may be removed to the spot
where it is finally to stand. Some currant-trees may be placed in
a warm situation so us for the fruit to come early ; but the finest
currants are those which grow rather in the shade ; the fruit be-
comes larger there, and has not the disagreeable tartness which it
acquires if ripened in a hot sun. This shrub flourishes and hears
well under the shade of other trees, as is seen so frequently and to
such great extent in the market gardens near London. When
the young currant-tree is planted out, it ought not to be suffered to
have any limhs within five or six inches of the ground ; but should
be made to have a clear and straight trunk to that height. When
the limbs come out, or rather the shoots that are to become limbs,
there should not be more than four or six suffered to go on as priiui-
pal limbs. By shortening the shoots at the end of the first year, you
double the number of limbs. These, as in the case of the espalier
apple-tree, are to be kept constantly clear of side-shoots by cut-
ting off, every winter, the last summer's wood within one bud or so
VI.] LIST OF FRUITS. 1S7
of the limb ; and when the limits have attained their proper length,
the shoot at the end of each limb should also be annually cut off,
■so that the tree, when it has received its pruning, consists of a
certain number of limbs, looking like so many rugged slicks, with
bunches of spurs sticking out of them, as in plate 11. On these
spurs come the fruit in quantities prodigious. Jf you neglect to
prune in the manner here directed, the centre of the tree becomes
PLATE 11.
,- sy
crowded with wood, and the small quantity of fruit that comes
near the point of the limbs, is very poor and small. This method of
pruning currants (and, as will be seen by-and-by, that of gooseber-
ries is nearly the same) is amongst the very greatest of improvements
in gardening, and is a discovery to be ascribed solely to the mar-
ket-gardeners in the neighbourhood of London, like a great, many
other things in the art of gardening, in which they far excel all the
rest of the world. Mr. Marshall in his book on gardening, and
the French authors in all their books, describe a method very differ-
ent indeed from this, which is, at once, so simple and so efficacious,
causing to be produced such immense quantities of fruit and
always of the best quality; hanging to one single joint of a currant-
tree, in the market gardens, you frequently see as much fruit as
will fill a plate. One tree pruned in this manner is equal to more
than six trees pruned in the manner practised in general through-
out the country. But these gardeners excel all the world in every
thing that they undertake to cultivate ; they beat all the gentle-
men's gardeners in the kingdom : nothing ever fails that depends
upon their skill, and I should be ungrateful, indeed, if I did not
acknowledge that I have learned more from them than from all
the books that I have read in my life, and from all that I ever saw
188 FRUITS. [chap.
practised in gentlemen's gardens. There are three sorts of cur-
rants, distinguished by their different colours of red, white, and
black, and the several uses of all these are too well known to need
any description.
269. FIG. — There are several sorts of figs, but some of them
will not ripen in England. Figs are raised either from cuttings
or layers, which are to be treated in the manner directed under
those heads, which see in the index. The fig must stand against
a wall, and a warm wall, too. This is generally an unsightly tree,
suffered to grow without pruning, and it is true that it bleeds
much if pruned ; but yet does not suffer so much as is sup-
posed. The ground in which they stand should be made as rich
as possible. They have the singularity that some of their fruit is
hardly formed at a time when part of it is ripe, and that thus a
succession of bearing is kept up until the frost comes. As far as
my observation has gone, comparatively few people like figs, on
account of their mawkish taste ; but, in a very fine summer, the
fruit is good and rich, and the number of the fruit is generally
very great.
270. FILBERT.— This is a fruit well known to us all. The
tree, or rather lofty shrub, is raised from suckers or layers : the
latter is best, because those raised from suckers infest the ground
with suckers. You cannot propagate a filbert from seed, it being one
of those plants, the seed of which does not, except by mere acci-
dent, produce fruit equal to that of the tree from which it comes.
The plants raised from layers, or the suckers, ought to be put into
a nursery in rows two feet apart, and at two feet distance in the
row. They will then become little trees by the end of two years,
and they should not stand there longer before they be finally
removed. A very good situation for filberts would be not far
from the hedge in the outer garden ; where they should never be
suffered to grow to too great a height ; never higher than to make
it a matter of no difficulty to gather the fruit with the hand. In
Kent, which county produces more filberts than all the rest of
the country put together, the trees are planted in rows at about
ten or twelve feet apart, and at about the same distance apart in
the row. Care is taken to have a clear stem or trunk about a
foot high, after which, limbs are suffered to come out in every
direction. Care is taken to prevent any limbs from going upright
above a certain height, and an annual pruning takes place in the
VI.J LIST OF FRUITS. 189
winter to take out all dead wood, all shoots that cross one another,
and to keep the middle of the tree clear, so that the sun and air
find their way to every part of it. Filberts, like every description
of hazel, will grow and bear under the shade of lofty trees; but
the fruit is not so abundant and not nearly so fine. To preserve
filberts for use through the winter, and until the spring, follow
precisely the directions given in the case of the chestnut. There
are two sorts of filberts, the scarlet and the grey, those being the
colours of the skins of the kernels. Filberts are really never
good till they are quite ready to drop out of the husk, or green
shell, and until the bud ends of them are white : if taken out of
the husk at an earlier stage than this, the kernels will shrivel.
271. GOOSEBERRY.— This is a fruit, which, in all its qualities,
is upon a par with the currant, whether for eating in its natural
state, for cooking, or for preserving ; for, though we in England
do not commonly make use of green currants, in America they
always make use of them in preference to green gooseberries :
in which respect, as in a great many others, the people of that
country have taken their habits from the northern parts of England.
When the green currants are used in a cooked state, the ripe
gooseberries are used in that state. Gooseberries are propagated,
planted out, trained, and pruned, in precisely the same manner as
directed for currants. See paragraph 268. Neither of these little
shrubs should be planted by the side of walks, where they inter-
fere in a very troublesome manner with the cultivation of the plats
and borders. They should have a piece of ground devoted to
their exclusive occupation, and should be planted at distances
sufficient to allow of going round them conveniently to gather the
fruit. For gooseberries and currants there might be plenty of
room in a part of the wall between the hedge and the garden.
Sometimes currants are placed against a wall facing to the north ;
and their fruit if properly protected will hang on to the latter end
of October or later. These two very useful fruits have most
destructive enemies in the small birds, especially the sparrows and
the finches, which feed upon their fruit-buds, and upon the fruit
when verv young ; and the blackbirds, thrushes, and some others
which feed upon them when ripe. To keep the birds off in the
spring, see par. 295. As to the preserving of currants and
gooseberries until late in the fall, if you have preserved them until
they be ripe, it is a much easier matter. If the currant-tree be
190 FRUITS. [tHAP.
against a wall, nothing is more easy than to cover it over with a
mat nailed to the wall ; and a standard tree is covered completely
by a couple of good new mats, well joined together and closely
drawn round at the bottom, and fastened round the stem of the
tree. Trees, however, subject to this discipline do not bear so
well the next year. The sorts of gooseberries are very numerous.
The following is the list cultivated in the King's gardens : Claret,
Early Lincoln, Golden Drop, Goliah, Green-gage, Imperial,
Keen's Seedling, Lomax's Victory, Old Briton, Pope, Rumbullion,
Warrington. The Keen's Seedling, raised by Mr. Kern at
Islington, is valued very much on account of its thorns^ which are
so numerous and so sharp and so well placed as to keep the small
birds from the buds and the young fruit. To this list 1 will add
a list of the best Lancashire gooseberries, which I have obtained,
through the kindness of a friend, from Lancashire this summer
(1832) : Green, Defiance, Fair-play, Glorious, Walnut, Merry-
man, Moses, No-bribery, Grove. Yellow, Good-intent, Golden-
globe, Golden-meal, Tim Bobbin, Sir Charles Wohley. White,
Ambush, Bonny-lass, Counsellor Brougham, Diana, Empress,
Fair-lady, Lovely-lass. Red, Red-walnut, Chance, Grand Turk,
Nonsuch, Sizer, Tarragon, Earl Grosvenor, Lancashire Lad. For
many years it has been the fashion to give the preference to goose-
berries of a large size, and the people of Lancashire (chiefly the
weavers) have been famous for their success in this way ; but, as
quality is far preferable to size, I regret the almost total disap-
pearance of the little smooth black gooseberrv, and of the little
hairy red gooseberry, both of which have very thin skins, and are
of flavour delicious. The big gooseberries are nearly all skin,
and the pulp is of a very mean flavour. For several vears I have
not seen a black gooseberry-tree in any garden except that of
some old farm-house ; but I would earnestly recommend to the
reader to obtain these two sorts if he can.
2/2. GRAPE.— See VINE.
27-3. HUCKLEBERRY. — I do not recommend the cultivation
of this in a garden ; though two or three rods of ground mav verv
well be bestowed upon it. It grows wild in the heaths of Surrev,
Sussex, and Kent, and in many other parts of the kingdom, and is
a very good fruit for tarts, when mixed with currants, and bv no
means bad to eat in its raw state. The benefit of cultivation
would doubtless make the fruit larger and of finer flavour.
VI.] LIST M FHUITS. 191
27-1. MEDLAR. — A very poor thing, indeed, propagated by
grafting on pear-stocks or crab-stocks. It is hardly worth notice,
being, at best, only one decree better than a rotten apple.
275. MULBERRY. — This tree is raised from cuttings or from
layers after the manner directed under those heads. It is planted
out like Ml apple or a pear-tree. It should not stand in the
kitchen garden, for it grows to a great size, and should have grass
beneath to receive the falling fruit, which is never so good when
gathered from the tree. Jt is well known that silk-worms feed
on the mulbery leaf, especially on that of the white mulberry,
which is cultivated for that purpose in France and Italy, and
which grows wild in America, bearing prodigiously. The other
sort is the red mulberry, or purple, as it ought to be called, and
this is the only sort that is common in England.
270. MELON. — As to the rearing of Melons, that has been
fully treated of in the foregoing Chapter. The sorts is all that we
have to do with here. The following is the list of those cultivated
in the King's gardens : Early Cantaloupe, Early Leopard, Early
Poliy/iac, Early Romana, Green-fleshed netted, Green-fleshed Rock,
Bosses Early Rock, Black Rock, Silver Rock, Scarlet-fleshed Rock.
In America, there is a melon of oblong shape, of small size, and of
most delicate flavour. They call it the nutmeg melon; the vines
are very slender. It is quick in bearing, its colour, when ripe, is
of a greenish yellow, and its flesh very nearly approaching to
white. This is the finest melon that I ever tasted. The great
things that come from France sometimes, are very little better
than a squash or a pumpkin. 1 had some white-coated melons,
the seed of which came from Spain : they weighed from eight to
twelve pounds a-piece ; but were, in point of flavour, not a bit
better than a white turnip. The rock melons of various sorts are,
in mv opinion, but very poor things ; there is no part of them,
except just the middle, that is not hard, unless you let the fruit
remain till it be nearly rotten. Indeed all the red-fleshed melons
are hard ; and I never have seen any melon of that description
that I really liked to eat. The little American melon, which is
grown there in great quantities in the natural ground, may be
eaten all out with a spoon, leaving a rind at least not thicker than
a shilling : it has twice the quantity of eatable pulp of a great
rock melon. But there is the water-melon, resembling other
melons only in its manner of growing, and somewhat in the shape
192 fruits. [chap.
and size of the leaf. The size of these may be put down at from
ten to thirty pounds weight. The flesh is not at all like that of
other melons. From the skin inwards, an inch wide, it is white,
like the flesh of a green cucumber, but harder; after that, towards
the centre of the fruit, come ribs resembling long honey- combs,
and, except that the colour is pink, or between pink and scarlet,
looking precisely like so much frozen snow. This is the part that
is eaten ; and the fruit is called the Water-melon, because these
ribs actually instantly turn to water in your mouth. This is the
favourite fruit of all ranks and degrees, and of all ages, in hot
countries ; and, when the weather is very hot, the refreshing
effects of tasting the fruit are really surprising. In England, this
sort of melon may be cultivated in the same manner, though with
some more difficulty than the common sorts or musk melons ; but
they want greater heat and more room. I have grown them very
fine in England ; and I have now a pot of plants to repeat the
attempt this year (1S28). The seed is large and black, and the
coat, after the melon gets to be of considerable size, is always of
the deepest green. One great difficulty is, to know when the fruit
is ripe ; for it emits no odour, like the musk melon, and never
changes its colour, not even after the whole of the inside is rotten.
In America, there is only here and there a man skilful enough to
ascertain, by rapping his knuckles upon the fruit, whether the
fruit be ripe. Unskilful people plug them ; that is to say, take
out a piece, as you do out of a cheese, to taste it, and then re-
place the plug. Other melons generally become ripe in about five
or six weeks after they begin to swell : in the case of water melons,
the best way would probably be to write down the time of setting
and beginning to swell of each fruit; and to allow seven weeks,
perhaps, instead of 6 weeks, before you cut the fruit.
277. NECTARINE. — To be propagated, planted, trained and
pruned, precisely ill the same manner as directed for the peach.
Nectarines rarely succeed in England so well as peaches. They
do not ripen so well : they get into a shrivelled state before they
are ripe, the cause of which I never have been able to ascertain.
The sorts are numerous. Those cultivated in the King's gardens
are the following : Early Neivington, Late Neivington, Brugnon,
Violet te hdtive, Du Telliers, Elruge, Fairc/tild's, Late Genoa,
Murray, White. There are two other nectarines, the Sweet
Violet, and the Temple. I recommend the White French, a very
VJ.] LIST OF FRT'ITS. 19.3
beautiful fruit, and ■ great and constant bearer, the Violette
lidtivc, and the Du Telliera. I have never known the rest to
ripen well. The White French, though not of so verv fine a
flavour as the other three, is so beautiful a fruit and so great a
bearer that no garden should ever be without it. To preserve the
blossoms will come under the head of peach ; and the thinning of
the fruit has already been spoken of under the head of apricot ;
the rules there given relative to this matter being applicable to
all fruit-trees that grow against a wall or in espalier.
278. NUT. — The mere hazel-nut such as is produced in the
coppices, and in quantities so prodigious that, in the vear 1S26, it
was calculated that there were a greater number of four-bushel
sacks of nuts, at VVeyhill Fair, than of bags of hops; though all
the hops grown at Farnham and a considerable part of those
grown in Kent, are taken to that fair ; of course this is not a
thing for a garden nor even for an orchard ; but there are certain
nuts called Cob-nuts, of three times the bulk of the common nut,
and with kernels of nearly as fine flavour as that of the filbert.
These are propagated, planted, trained, ancl pruned, in precisely
the same manner as the filbert ; for the seed will not produce a
tree to resemble the fruit of the original tree, except by mere
accident.
279. PEACH. — The propagation, planting, training, and
pruning, have already been spoken of fully ; but I have here
to speak of the preserving or protecting the blossoms of wall-
trees. The peach, like the nectarine, will bear, and sometimes
ripen the fruit well, against a wall facing the west; facing the
east, neither does well ; and the proper situation of both, is, a
wall facing the south. Here the situation is as warm as our cli-
mate will suffer it to be ; but the bloom comes out at so early a
season, that that season is always a time of anxiety with the gar-
dener, on account of the frosts by which the blossoms are
frequently so severely attacked as to prevent the coming of any
crop at all. To protect the blossoms, therefore, against the frost
is a matter of great importance. The boughs of the yew-tree and
other evergreens; or, the spreading parts of fern, are used for
this purpose. Some people nail up mats in the evening and take
them off in the morning ; but to mat is very tiresome ; and, as to
the boughs and the fern, they must remain on day and night ;
and, what with the putting them on and the taking them off and
o
194 FRUITS. [chap.
their keeping off the sun and air from the buds and the fruit, they
generally do as much harm as good. Frosts descend ; that is to
say, their destructive effect comes down upon a tree perpendicu-
larly. It is not the cold that destroys the germ of the fruit. It
is the wet joined to the cold. That which is dry will not freeze ;
frost has power on those things only which have moisture in them;
and though there is moisture in the blossom, that is not sufficient
of itself to give the frosts the power of destruction. When frosts
come without rain or dews, they do very little harm to blossoms.
Therefore, the thing to be desired is, something to keep off the
wet during the time that the blossom is becoming a fruit. The
best way of doing this is to have something going out from the
top of the wall to about a foot and a half wide, which might
remain day and night, until the dangerous season were over.
The thing recommended by a very able and experienced French
writer, M. De Comble, is, a board of that width, supported by
posts at convenient distances. These posts, however, besides
their unsightliness, I object to on account of the holes that must
be made for placing them in the ground. To obviate this, and
to cause the operation to be little troublesome, I would, in the
building of my wall, have, in the row of bricks next to the top
row, what the bricklayers call a wooden brick, at suitable dis-
tances. In these wooden bricks (to be made of the most durable
wood) might be holes for the purpose of admitting the end of a
stout piece of iron, about perhaps two feet long, besides the part
necessary to enter into the brick. When the blooming season
arrived, and just before the blossoms began to burst, these pieces
of iron would be put into the holes in the bricks and there fastened
by means easily to be invented ; upon these pieces of iron the
boards might be laid all along the wall ; the boards might be
fastened down to the pieces of iron by holes made in the former
to admit a small cord to fasten the former to the latter, and thus
the whole would remain safe against the power of the winds until
the season arrived when the fruit would be out of danger. The
board might be placed rather in a sloping direction, in order to
prevent rains from pouring upon it and running down the wall.
When done with, these protecting materials might be safelv laid
aside until the next year : here is a method, at once little expen-
sive, little troublesome, and not at all annoying to the trees, and
perfectly effectual. As to the thinniny of the fruit, greater care is,
VI.] LIST OF FRUITS. 105
if possible, necessary here than in the case of the apricot. No
single shoot should, on any account, be suffered to bear more than
two peaches ; and, if it be not a strong shoot, not more than one ;
and this for the reasons amply given under the head of apricot ;
where I ought to have observed, that it is not the producing of
thojnifr nrhirh requires the great effort from the tree; but the
bringing of the seed to perfection ; so that, though you are to
have the same weight of peaches on a tree that should bear a
hundred as on a tree that should bear two hundred; still the effort
required from the tree would be only half as great in the former
case as in the latter ; because, in the former, there would be only
half the number of seeds. The sorts of peaches are very nume-
rous. I shall first give the list cultivated in the King's gardens,
and then give my opinion, founded on experience. Catherine,
Incomparable, Old Neivington, Royal Pavey, Bear's Early, Bour-
dine, Chancellor, Early Purple, Early Vineyard, French Mignonne,
Gallande, Montague, Noblesse, Persique, Red Magdalen, Royal
George, Teton de Venus, Yellow Alberge. The list of peaches
which I recommend are, the Early Anne, not very fine but early,
and a constant bearer, the Double Montague, the Early Montau-
bon, the French Mignonne, the Grosse Mignonne, the Royal George,
the Noblesse, the Early Gallande, the Late Gallande, the Van-
guard, the Bellegarde, the Chancellor, and the Violelte hdtive.
These are the best peaches, according to my observation ; and,
after the Early Anne, I have placed them as they appear to me
to be best in quality ; that is to say, the best first, and the least
good last. In point of bearing, the Royal George is a famous
peach, and it is not much excelled in any other respect. Peaches
should never be gathered (and the same with regard to nectarines)
until just about to drop from the tree. They are not to be pulled ;
and if they do not come off with just putting your hand under
them and giving them a little touch, they are not ripe ; and an
unripe peach is a very poor thing. Some people place a net along
in front of the tree, tacked on one side to the wall, and supported
on the other by little forked sticks, in order to catch the fruit
when they fall, and to prevent bruising. And this is a very good
way when you have not time to make an individual examination of
the fruit ; but, if one fall upon another, a bruising takes place in
spite of the swagging situation of the net. Peaches and nectarines
also mav be preserved like apricots ; and they make, if possible.,
o 2
196 FRUITS. [chap.
still better pies and tarts ; though, for these purposes, they should
not be quite dead ripe. The greatest possible attention must be
paid to have your trees of the right sort. When gentlemen go to
a nursery to choose trees, and especially trained trees, they are too
apt to be captivated by the appearance of the plant ; but, as ill
weeds grow apace, so it is with fruit-trees. A Catherine or a Mag-
dalen peach would be of twice the size in the same space of time
as a French Mignonne or a Montaubon ; and, indeed, it may be laid
down as a general rule, that, in proportion as the fruit excels, the
stature of the tree is puny and its growth slow : it is the same
through almost everything in nature, and it would be strange,
indeed, if peach-trees formed an exception. With regard to the
diseases to which the peach-tree is subject, and the enemies that
it is exposed to, mention will be made of these hereafter.
2S0. PEAR. — The propagating and planting have already been
noticed ; because everything in those respects said of the apple is
applicable to the pear. In the rearing of orchards of pears also,
the rules for the rearing of apple orchards apply in all respects
whatever ; and the reader should, therefore, now turn to those
rules. Pears, in a still greater degree than apples, demand espa-
lier training if they are of fine sorts. Indeed, these fine sorts, the
greater part of which have come from France, are worthy of a good
wall, facing the west, the east, or the north. As to the training
and pruning of them, the rules are precisely those described under
the head of Espalier, which see. Pears very seldom bear upon
the last year's wood ; but upon spurs, in like manner as the apple
does. No standard pear-tree, any more than a standard apple-
tree, should have place in a garden. All the reasons given for
training apples in the espalier form, apply to pears, and with still
greater force ; for, it is perfectly useless to attempt to get fine
pears upon standard-trees. Most trees will bear ; but the fruit
will not ripen, and will not be of good flavour even if they do. I
have mentioned before, that the stocks for pears, are pears raised
from the pip, quinces raised from cuttings or layers, or white-thorn
raised from the stones. For wall-trees or espalier trees, quince-stocks
are the best ; and that these may be had from the pips, is proved
by this fact, that 1 have now more than a thousand young pear-
trees grafted upon quince-stocks raised from the pips. I got the
pips from America, where quinces are grown in great abundance.
It would be difficult to get the pips here, and, therefore, quince-
VI. j LIST OF FRUITS. 107
stocks must generally be raised from layers or cuttings. The
quince-stocks are the best ; because they do not force up wood bo
bit; and BO lofty as tbe pear-stocks. The white-thorn is vcrv dura-
ble and has a dwarf tendency ; but it is apt to send out suckers*
and certainly does not produce a tree so fruitful in its early stages
•a the quince-stock : tbe sorts of pears are almost endless. The
French authors mention a hundred and fifty-two sorts. I shall
insert the list from the Hortus Kewensis, and then mention those
sorts which I think may content any man: It is: Aston-town
Pear, Autumn Bergamot, GanseVs Bergamot, Summer Bergamot,
Brown Beurrc'e, Golden Beurrc'e, White Beurrc'e, Bishop 's Thumb,
Winter Bonchrc'tien, Williams's Bonchretien, Citron des Carmes,
Chaumontelle, Crasanne, Colmar, D'Aucli, Jargonelle, Lammas,
Martin sec, Red Doyenne, Summer Rousselet, St. Germain, Swan's
Egg, Verte-longue, Virgouleuse, Windsor, Catillac, Dr. Uvedale's
St. Germain. The only pears that I think necessary, are, for tbe
summer, the Green Chisel, which is the earliest of all, and if the
fruit come from a tree well trained and pruned, it is by no means a
mean pear ; the Catherine pear, which is a little long pear with a
beautiful red cheek ; it does not rot at the heart as some pears
do, and is nearly as great a bearer as the Green Chisel itself, and
that is a great bearer indeed. The Summer Bergamot ; and the
Summer Bonchretien. The autumn pears are, the Brown Beurre'e,
the Autumn Bergamot, and particularly the Gansel's Bergamoty
which, in my opinion, very far surpasses tbe Brown Beurree. Tbe
winter pears that would satisfy me, are, the Winter Bonchretien,
the Colmar, tbe Crasanne, and the Poire d'Auch, that is to say,
the pear of the city of Auch in France. Pears for cooking are,
Parkinsons pear, tbe Catillac, and Uvedale's St. Germain. Be-
sides these, there are two pears which I have propagated from
cuttings brought from Long Island, and which appeared to have
no name there : I call tbe one the Long Island Autumnal Pear,
the very finest fruit of the pear kind, without any exception, that I
ever tasted in my life. When ripe, which it is early in October, it
is of a greenish yellow colour, weighs about three quarters of a
pound, actually melts in your mouth, and, with a little care, keeps
well to the middle of November. The other is what I call the
Long Island Perry Pear, which is of a middling size, very hard,
and very rough to the taste when raw ; but this pear, when baked,
or stewed and then preserved, is the finest thing of the kind that
198 FRUITS. [chap.
I ever saw. To these recommendations may be added, that this
tree is as great a bearer as the Green Chisel itself; and, which is
rather singular of the pear and apple kind, the three years that I
was in Long Island, these trees were loaded with fruit every year.
Cattle and hogs are turned into the orchards of America to live and
fatten upon the fruit : they take up from the ground those which
they like best ; or they feed from the lower branches of the trees.
I never perceived my cattle extremely anxious about other fruit ;
but to get at the perry pears, the steers and oxen used to raise
themselves upon their hind-legs, which I very rarely saw them do
in the case of any other tree. Their strong jaws could mash them;
and they therefore were able to ascertain their sugary quality.
Raw, they will keep all the winter long, and until the month of
May; and still be as solid and as hard as ever. I am sure that
this is the best pear in the world for cooking, and, I think, for
the making of perry. With regard to the gathering of pears for
the table, the rules are precisely the same as those laid down in
the case of the apple ; though it may be observed that summer
pears (which keep but for a short time) ought to be gathered a
little while before they be ripe, and especially the Green Chisel
and the Catherine.
2S1. PLUM. — As to the sort of stock, it must be the seed of
the plum, as mentioned under the head of Propagation. The
plum is budded in general, and not grafted ; so is the cherry ; but
both may be grafted, and this is the common practice in America.
As to the management of the budded plant, and as to planting
out, directions have before been given, in the case of the peach, if
against a wall ; and, in the case of the espalier apple, if in the
form of the espalier. Plums do not require so much room as other
wall-trees ; nor do they require so much as apples, or pears, or
cherries, in espalier. They bear generally upon spurs, seldom on
the last year's wood ; for training and pruning against a wall, the
rules laid down under the head of Apricot exactlv apply ; and all
the objections to standards, mentioned under the head of Apple,
equally apply here. Against a wall, plums are placed on walls
facing the east, the west, or the north ; and the Green-gage (queen
of all plums) is finer when it has a northern aspect than when
much exposed to the sun : it is not so sugary ; but it is larger, comes
in more by degrees, and is, in fact, of finer flavour than when ex-
posed to a hot sun. As to the sorts of plums. Those cultivated
VI.] LI3T OF FRUITS. 1J)<)
in the King's gardens arc as follows: Red Bonum Mat/num, White.
Hnninii Mai/num, Catherine, Coe's Golden Drop, Damascene,
Drop d'Or, fbiherknfkam, Blue Goge, Green Gaffe, German
'Prune, Impend rice, Mirahcllc, Morocco, Early Orleans, Late
Orleans, Blue Perdriijou, White Pcrdrii/on, Pncoce tie Tours,
Queen Mother Pin id, Hnijide de Tours, Fimiennes, Jl'inc-sonr, or
Windsor Go/iah. The Green-gage and the Orleans are the most
fashionable plums ; though the Blue Gage, which comes late in the
fa}), is, in my opinion, one of the finest of plums; and it is a very
great hearer. All plans may he preserved with sugar : the green-
gage or the blue-gage would he the best ; hut dauisons and bul-
lares are generally used, because they come more abundantly, and,
of course, are not so difficult to obtain. The Magnum Bonums
are fit for nothing but tarts and sweetmeats. Magnum is right
enough ; hut, as to bonum, the word has seldom been so com-
pletely misapplied.
282. QUIXCE. — There is an apple-shaped and a pear-shaped.
It is not a fruit to be eaten raw ; but to be put into apple-pies
and some other things. They are to be preserved like apples ;
and the trees are raised from cuttings or layers.
2S3. RASPBERRY.— There are two sorts, distinguished by their
colours of red and white. There are some of each that bear a
second crop in the autumn. The largest of raspberries is called
the Antwerp, and a very fine fruit it is. Raspberries are propa-
gated from offsets taken from the old stool : these are taken off in
the fall, and they bear the next year. The stools ought to stand
in rows at six feet apart, and at three feet apart in the row. It is
very curious that in the northern countries of America, Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick for instance, the raspberry plant dies
completely down in the fall of the year, and new shoots come up
again out of the ground in the spring much about after the manner
of fern. These shoots bear the first year, though they do not
make their appearance above ground until June; and where the
land is clear of high trees, and where the August sun has shrivelled
up the leaves of the raspberries, these shrubs form a sheet of red
for scores of miles at a stretch. Thev are the summer fruit of the
wild pigeon, and of a great variety of other birds, f once thought
that raspberries would never hear upon the shoot of the year in
England ; but I have Frequently, of late years, seen them hear
upon such shoots. The stems of raspberries should be prevented
200 FRUITS. [chap.
from bending down, when loaded with leaves and with fruit, by
stakes put along the sides of the rows, and by little rods tied to
these stakes. Every stool will send out, during summer, a great
number of shoots. When the leaf is down, these should be all
taken away, except about four to produce fruit the next year.
The shoots that have borne during the summer, die in the autumn:
these should also be removed ; and, in November, and again in
March, all the ground should be well and truly digged ; and the
weeds should be kept down completely during the whole of the
summer. One manuring in three years will be sufficient. The
common little raspberry is but a poorish thing ; and every one
should take care to have the Antwerp if possible. Raspberries,
when gathered, will not bear much keeping or pressing : they are
a very delicious fruit when taken at the proper time ; but, if put
together in too great quantities, whether they be gathered care-
fully or not, they will taste badly directly, and, in twelve hours, they
will be sour. Raspberries, like currants, are sometimes made use
of, with the assistance of sugar, to make wine, and, in America,
where strength is a great requisite, to make brandy ; that is to
sav, a parcel of brandy and sugar is put amongst the juice of the
raspberries: these things I, for my part, totally disapprove of:
that which we call currant wine, is neither more nor less than red-
looking weak rum. The strength coming from the sugar ; and
gooseberry wine is a thing of the same character, and, if the fruit
were of no other use than this, one might wish them to be extir-
pated. People deceive themselves. The thing is called wine ;
but it is rvm : that is to say, an extract from sugar.
2S-1. kvEUYfCE. — A tree of the woods, where it bears a thing
between a sloe and a haw. It is totally unfit to be eaten ; and,
therefore, I shall say no more about it.
285. STRAWBERRY.— Very different from the last article !
This is a fruit, exceeded in no one respect (except that of keeping)
but by very few; and surpassing a very great majority of the fruits
of this country. It is so well known, that to describe either plant
or fruit would be almost an insult to the reader. I shall, there-
fore, have to speak only of the different sorts, and to describe the
manner of propagating and cultivating the plants, so as to ensure,
or, at least, give the best chance of, fine fruit and large crops, no
man ever having found that he had too much of this excellent fruit,
Strawberry plants are raised in the following manner : the plant,
VI. J USt 1>V NtVITS. 201
while it is bearing, sends forth runners along upon the ground :
these runners have several joints, ami, at every joint, there COOiefl
out a root which penetrates down into the ground. Each of the-e
roots sends up a plant ; so that the runner, if it extend to a yard
or two, as it frequently will, would, perhaps, produce ten or a
doaen plants. All these plants, if cut from the runner and planted
out, would grow; hut all of them would not hear the first year if
so planted out. The runners hegin to start usually in May, not
making much progress at first, on account of the coldish weather ;
but. by the middle of June, the runners have produced an abun-
dance of plants. 'You take the earliest and stoutest of these,
plant them out before the end of the first week in August, and
these plants will bear abundantly the next year. Great care must
be taken in this planting. The ground should be made rich and
fine : the root is but small, and the weather is hot; therefore, the
root should be fixed well in the ground with the fingers; and a
little rain or pond water should be given to the plants. They
should be attended to very carefully to see that worms do not tear
them out of the ground or move them at all : the ground should
be moved frequently between them, approaching as near to the
plant as possible. By November, the plants will be stout : the
winter, however severe, will do them no injury ; and, in the month
of June, when only a year old, they will produce a crop worth
fifty times the labour bestowed upon them. When planted out,
they ought to be placed from three to five in a clump, each plant
at a few inches from the other. The clumps should be in rows
of three feet apart, and, if it were four, it would be so much the
better, and at three feet apart in the row. To cultivate straw-
berries in beds, suffering them to cover the whole of the ground
with their runners and young plants, is a miserable method, pro-
ceeding from the suggestions either of idleness or of greediness,
and sure to lead to the defeating the object of this latter. Straw-
berries will bear a little in this way, though not much ; but the
fruit will be of small and insipid flavour. Neither should even
the clumps be suffered to stand to bear for more than two vears.
I have sometimes tried them the third year, but have never found
it answer. But then to have new clumps is so easy that this can
form an objection with no one. Having need of a certain num-
ber of clumps, you have only to take up those that have borne
for two years, and plant just the same number of new ones. To
202 FRUITS. [chap.
remove strawberries from one place to another is the easiest
thing in the world : you have nothing to do but to give a chop
with a spade round the clump ; take it up and put it in the place
where you wish to have it. This may be done at any time be-
tween October and Mav without the smallest chance of injuring
the crop : to all its other excellent qualities, the strawberry adds
hardiness of the plant, in a swamp on a bank, amidst rocks, and
upon the tops of walls, I have seen strawberries growing and bear-
ing ; but stifling they will not endure ; and, therefore, if you want
the industry and care to plant them at suitable distances and to
keep them clear of grass and weeds, never expect a crop of straw-
berries. Before I come to speak of the different sorts, let me
notice three things : preserving strawberries from the birds and
slugs ; keeping them from being covered with dirt by the heavv
rains ; and giving them water if the ground be at all dry. As to
the first of these, the wood-pigeons, the common pigeons, the
doves, the blackbirds, the jack-daws, the thrushes, and even some
of the small birds, invade the strawberry clumps, and, if unresisted,
destroy a great part of the fruit. In this case, which happens
when there are woods and shrubberies at hand, nothing is a pro-
tection but a net, held up by hoops or little forked sticks. The
slug is a still more bitter enemy ; and, in some seasons, where
strawberries are suffered to run together in beds, more than half
the fruit is consumed or spoiled by these nasty and mischievous
reptiles. The remedy is, to examine the clumps well just as the
strawberries are beginning to be ripe. See that there are no slugs
about the stems of the leaves, and then make a little circle of hot
lime, at half a foot or so at the extremity of the leaves of the
clumps. No slug will enter that magic circle ; but, if rain come,
or even heavy dews, the lime becomes slack and powerless, and a
little more must be put upon the circle, the least dust in the
world being enough. The other precaution ; namelv, to keep the
fruit from being beaten by the rain down amongst the dirt, short
grass-mowings, or moss, the latter being the best of the two,
should be laid round the stems of the plants, just as the fruit be-
gins to ripen. This will completely guard against the evil : come
what rain will, the fruit will always be clean. The last thing that
I have to mention, is the watering; and a real good watering
with rain-water, or pond-water, should be given just when the
blossoms are falling and the fruit begins to set. Blacking the
VI.] LIST OK FRUITS. 2(Ki
ground over with the rose of the watering-pot is of no use at all ;
the water should he poured out of the nose of the pot, held close
down to the piant ; and, one gallon of water, at least, should he
given at one time to every clump of plants. If the weather he
verv hot in June, even while the fruit is ripening, and while vou are
gathering strawherries, they might have another such a watering,
and that would be enough. Nothing have 1 ever found more dif-
ficult than, behind my hack, to secure an honest watering. "Wa-
tering-pots, when full, are heavy ; the distance may he great, and
few men like to carry heavy things for any long continuation.
Just turn your hack, and they merely wet the ground ; and, if you
return, you see that the strawberries have all been watered ; but
(and mind this), go the next day, if the weather have continued
fair, and you will then see how you have been cheated. Straw-
berries like good, deep, and rich land : holding land, as the people
in the country call it : they will grow almost anywhere, and will
produce more or less of fruit ; but, if you mean to have fine straw-
berries, you must have good land ; therefore, make the land as
good as you can make it. As to the sorts of strawberries, the
scarlet is the earliest ; and some people like it ; the hautbois (or
high-stalked), the Keiv Pine, the Chili, the White Alpine and the
Red Alpine; which two latter are vulgarly called wood straw-
berries. The hautboy has a musky and singular flavour as well
as smell, and some people prefer it to all others. But the great
strawberry of all, now-a-days, is that which was some years ago
raised from seed by Mr. Keen of Islington, which is therefore
called the Keen's seedling ; and this strawberry, which is the only
one used for forcing in the King's gardens, has nearly supplanted
every other sort. It is early ; it is a prodigious bearer ; the
fruit is large, and very large ; and it surpasses, in mv opinion, all
others in flavour. I gathered some of the Kew pine (for many
years thought the best of all) ; at the same time I gathered some
of the Keens seedling : I put the two parcels down upon the
table before several persons, who tasted both in order to form a
judgment; and every one of them said that the Keen s seedling
was the best, I having taken care not to let any of them know
which was which. But the London market speaks of the
character of this strawberry. Notwithstanding habit and pre-
judice, the London gardeners have found that no other strawberry
will sell ; and, in fact, there is hardly any other now brought to
204 FRUITS. [chap.
the markets. As to the Chili (nearly as large as a pigeon's egg),
it is very little superior in flavour to the potato. But I have
recently discovered (1833), or rather Sir Charles Wolseley has
been so good as to teach me, that there is a sort of Alpine straw-
berry which, perhaps, taken altogether, is the most valuable of
the whole. The French call it the Cisalpine strawberry, or the
Strawberry of Napoleon. It is cultivated in this manner : Un-
like any other strawberry, it produces its like from the seed. The
seed, which is very small, may be sowed in a large flower-pot, in
the following manner at the following time. The pot should be
be filled within an inch of the top with very fine earth ; a small
pinch of the seed should be as regularly as possible scattered over
the earth ; and throw some more very fine earth spread over the
seed about a quarter of an inch thick or less, being gently patted
down upon it, and afterwards a little water given to the pot
through a very fine watering-pot top ; and you will perceive the
seed coming up in about ten or twelve days. This sowing should
take place about the beginning or middle of February ; the pot
should be placed in a greenhouse, or in any room where the sun
gets at it, and should be occasionally watered. In the month of
April, the pot should be set out of doors in a warm place, sheltered
from heavy rains by being taken in, and sheltered also from hard
frosts if any come. In the month of May, the plants will be fit to
go out into the natural ground. A piece of ground should be
made very good, digged very deep, and broken very fine, and
especially made extremely smooth at top. With a very small
dibber, or little stick well pointed, put the plant out, in rows, the
rows being two feet apart, and the plants two feet apart in the
row. Put only a single plant in a place ; for, though the plant
will not be much bigger than a thread when you put it out, it
will soon become a great tuft, multiplying itself in a manner per-
fectly prodigious. These plants will have fine strawberries on
them about the middle or latter end of July, and they will keep
bearing until the hard winter frosts come and stop them. I saw,
in the month of September last, the finest dishes of strawberries
that I ever saw in my life at Wolseley- park, in Staffordshire. The
plants were then in full bearing, and there were ripe strawberries
on the runners of that same summer. These strawberries go on
like the orange-tree, blowing and having ripe fruit :it the same
time. The second vear vou must take care to take off all runners
VI.] LIST OF FRUITS. 20.")
from the tufts ami leave the tufts to bear a second year ami no
longer, for, if tliev do, they become so crowded into offsets, that
they do not hear much, and that which they do hear is not fine
fruit ; so that, it is necessary to make a new plantation every
year in order always to have an abundance of strawherries. The
tufts of last year will bear strawberries very nearly as early as the
scarlet. AH strawherries have a fragrant smell ; hut a bed of
these strawberries surpasses all others in fragrance, and, I think,
m flavour. There are some of them red and some white, which
may be kept distinct or not, just as you please. As to their size,
those of Sir Charles Wolseley were a great deal larger than the
common scarlet strawberry. In my "American Gardener" I have
recommended the forming of strawbeiry plantations into beds,
knowing that it was impossible to prevail upon the people in
that country to take the pains required to cultivate them m
clumps.
286. VINE.— It is the practice in England to cultivate vines
onlv against walls, against houses, upon roofs of houses, and
under glass ; but, that it might be cultivated otherwise on many
spots in the south of England, the history of the country most
amply proves. For a series of ages there were extensive vineyards
in England ; and wine made here very nearly as good as that of
Fiance. I remember seeing, when I was a boy, a beautiful vine-
yard, in extent, I should think, of two or three acres, in the
grounds of the estate called Paikshill at Cobham, in Surrey.
The vines were there planted in rows, and tied to stakes, in just
the same manner as in the vineyards in France ; and, at the time
when I saw that vineyard, the vines were well loaded with a
black- coloured grape. The reasons why this culture has been
dropped are of no importance at present ; but the facts that I
have stated are of great importance ; because they prove that
vines may be raised in espalier in a warm situation in any garden
on the south side of Warwickshire at the least. The grape-vine
is propagated from cidtinys or from layers. A layer is a shoot
from the vine, laid into the ground in one part of it with a little
sloping cut on the under side. The fore part of the shoot is then
tacked to the wall, or a stake is driven into the ground to tie it
to. In the fall of the year this is a young vine with a good root
to it ; but, as vines do not remove very well, the usual way is to
untack a shoot from the vine which grows against the wall, bring
206 FRUITS. [chap.
it out into the border opposite, sink a pretty large flower-pot
into the border, place the cut part of the shoot into the flower-
pot three parts filled with earth, put a nice straight stick down
into the flower-pot at the same time, put a peg on the wall side
of the pot to prevent the shoot from rising up, tie the top of the
shoot to the stick, then fill the pot and the hole full of earth, and
press it down well so as to form a little dish to hold the water.
Soon after this is done, which ought to be in the month of
February, cut the fore part of the shoot off to within a joint or
two of the ground, tie it firmly to the stick ; and, when it sends
out its shoots, tie one of them to the stick, and cut the other
a\vav. In the fall of the year, cut off the back part of the shoot
which attaches the tree against the wall, dig up the pot, and you
have a vine to remove to what spot you please, to be transplanted
by merely turning the ball out of the pot, just as you would in the
case of a pot of cucumbers or melons. When transplanted thus
in the fall, or any time before the middle of February, cut the
vine down to within one or two buds of the ground, and then you
begin to train as hereafter to be directed. The other way of
propagating vines is by cuttings. You cut off, before the middle
of February, a piece of a shoot which came out the last summer :
this cutting should, if convenient, have an inch or two of the last
year's wood at the bottom of it ; but this is by no means abso-
lutely necessary. The cutting should have four or five buds or
joints : make the ground rich, move it deep and make it fine.
Then put in the cutting with the setting stick, leaving only two
buds, or joints, above ground ; fastening the cuttings well in the
ground. Or, another, and, I think, a better, way of propagating
vines by cuttings, is, to take in February a bud of the last year's
wood, cutting all wood away except about half an inch above and
half an inch below the bud, and shaving off the bark, and a little
way into the wood straight down this inch-long piece, only let this
shaving be on the side opposite to the bud. Bury the whole two
inches deep, in a largish pot filled with good mould, keeping the bud
in an upright position. Do not mind covering the bud over ; it will
shoot up through the mould, and the place behind it, from which
you cut out the slice of bark and wood, will send out vigorous
roots ; and then, as to keeping it cool, see CUTTINGS, under
the head of Propagation, in this Chapter. As to the training
and pruning of vines, I have, in my book on American Gardening,
vi.J
0* F/UITS.
207
PLATE 8.
given instructions for the performing of this work in the espalier
form. The very same instructions, apply to walls and to houses,
and also to roofs, seeing that, on roofs, it is merely a trellis-work
lying in a sloping attitude. I have supposed a new plantation of
vines to be made expressly for espalier training ; and, with
several sorts of grapes, tins method would succeed perfectly well
in the south of England, in warm spots and at no great distance
from walls facing the south. I shall therefore now repeat, with some
little variations as to season and other circumstances, my direc-
tions for training and pruning the vines in espalier. First look at
plate S (p. 208), which represents, as well as I am able to make
it represent, three trellis-works for
vines. These trellis-works are to
be five feet high, and to consist
of little upright bars, two and a
half inches by two inches, put two
feet into the ground, and made
of locust wood. The proper
situation for vines would be in a
line on the south side of the north
wall, or on the south side of the
south wall, and at about seven feet
from the wall, leaving plenty of
room for the work to be performed
on the wall-trees as well as on the
trellis. The length of such line
would be 200 feet ; and, allowing
for the thickness of the walls, and
for the door-way coming into the
hot-bed ground (in case you choose the south side of the
north wall), and for the door-way going from the inner to
the outer garden, if you choose the other wall, there would be
space for twelve vines at sixteen feet apart. You would, therefore,
plant your cuttings or your voung vines at that distance. Look
now at the plate above, which represents the cutting become
a plant, or the young vine, having made its first year's shoot.
There is no difference in the treatment ; but, in order to avoid
unnecessary words, let us suppose it to have been a cutting, and
suppose it to have been tied to a little stake during the summer.
20S
FRUITS.
PLATE 8.
[CHAP.
r^vsjl**^!^
The first year of its being a vine, after the leaves are off and
before pruning, is exhibited in fig. 2. The same year's vine,
'pruned in February, is exhibited in fig. 3. The vine, in its next
summer, is exhibited, with shoots, leaves, and (/rapes, in fig. 4.
Having measured your distances, put in a cutting at each place
where there is to be a vine, leaving above ground only two joints
or buds. From these will come two shoots, perhaps ; and, if two
come, rub off the top one and leave the bottom one, and, in
winter, cut off the bit of dead wood, which will in this
case, stand above the bottom shoot. Choose, however, the
upper one to remain, if the lower one be very weak. Or, a better
way is, to put in two or three cuttings within an inch of each
other, leaving only one bud to each out of ground, and taking
away in the fall, the cuttings that send up the weakest shoots.
The object is to get one good shoot, coming out as near to the
ground as possible. This shoot vou tie to an upright stick, letting
it grow its full length. When winter comes, cut this shoot down
to the bud nearest to the ground. The next year another, and a
much stronger shoot will come out ; and, when the leaves are off,
in the fall, this shoot will be eight or ten feet long, having been
tied to a stake as it rose, and will present what is described in
fig. 1, plate 8, You must make your trellis j that is, put in your
VI.] LIST OF FRUITS. 209
upright locust-bars to tie the next summer's shoots to. You will
want (see fig. 2) eight shoots to come out to run horizontally, to
he tied to these hars. You must now, then, in winter, cut off yon
vine, leaving ei§ht huds or joints. You see there is a mark for
this cut at a, fig. 1. During summer, eight shoots will come, and,
as they proceed on, they must he tied with matting, or something
soft, to the bars. The whole vine, both ways included, is sup-
posed to go sixteen feet ; but, if your tillage be good, it will go
much further, and then the ends must be cut off in winter. Now,
then, winter presents you your vine as in fig. 2 ; and now you
must prune, which is the all-important part of the business. Ob-
serve, and bear in mind, that little or no fruit ever comes on a
grape-vine, except on young shoots that come out of wood of the
last ijear. All the four last year's shoots that you find in fig. 2
would send out bearers ; but if you suffer that, you will have a
great quantity of small wood, and little or no fruit next year.
Therefore, cut off four of the last year's shoots, as at b, fig. 3,
leaving only one bud. The four other shoots will send out a shoot
from every one of their buds, and if the vine be strong, there will
be two bunches of grapes on each of these young shoots ; and, as
the last year's shoots are supposed to be each eight feet long, and
as there generally is a bud at, or about, every half foot, every last
year's shoot will produce thirty-two bunches of grapes ; every
vine 128 bunches ; and the twelve vines 1536 ; and, possibly, nay,
probably, so many pounds of grapes ! Ts this incredible ? Take,
then, this well-known fact, that there is a grape-vine, a single
vine, with only one stem, in the King's gardens, at his palace of
Hampton Court, which has, for perhaps half a century, produced
annually, nearly a ton of grapes ; that is to say, 2240 pounds
avoirdupois weight. That vine covers a space of seventy-two feet
in length, and twenty-two in breadth. However, suppose you
have only a fifth part of what you might have, 300 bunches
of grapes are worth a great deal more than the annual trou-
ble, which is, indeed, very little. Fig. 4 shows a vine in sum-
mer. You see the four shoots bearing, and four other shoots
coming on for the next year, from the butts left at the winter
pruning, as at b. These four latter you are to tie to the bars as
they advance on during the summer. When winter comes again,
you are to cut off the four shoots that sent out the bearers
during the summer, and leave the four that grew out of the
p
210 FRUITS. [CHAP.
butts. Cut the four shoots that have borne, so as to leave but
one bud at the butt. And they will then be sending out wood,
while the other four will be sending out fruit. And thus you
go on year after year for your life ; for, as to the vine, it will,
if well treated, outlive you and your children to the third, and
even the thirtieth generation. The vine at Hampton Court is
now (1S33) between sixty and seventy years old. During
the summer there are two things to be observed, as to pruning.
Each of the last year's shoots has thirty-two buds, and of course
it sends out thirty-two shoots with the grapes on them, for the
grapes come out of the two first fair buds of these shoots. So
that here would be an enormous quantity of wood, if it were all
left till the end of summer. But, this must not be. When the
grapes get as big as peas, cut off the green shoots that bear them,
at two buds distance from the fruit. This is necessary in order to
clear the vine from confusion of branches, and also to keep the
sap back for the supply of the fruit. These new shoots, that have
the bunches on, must be kept tied to the trellis, or else the wind
would tear them off. The other thing is, to take care to keep
nicely tied to the bars the shoots that are to send forth bearers the
next year ; and, if you observe any little side-shoots coming out
of them, to crop these off as soon as they appear, leaving nothing
but the clear, clean shoot. It may be remarked, that the butt,
as at b, when it is cut off the next time, will be longer by a bud.
That will be so ; but, by the third year, the vine will be so strong,
that you may safely cut the shoots back to within six inches of
the main trunk, leaving the new shoots to come out of it where
they will ; taking care to let but one grow for the summer. If
shoots start out of the main trunk irregularly, rub them off as soon
as they appear, and never suffer your vine to have any more than
its regular number of shoots. Thus far with regard to the train-
ing and pruning of vines in espalier. I have now to speak of
training against a wall ; training under glass in a green-house;
and training against a house. If against a wall, you proceed to
raise the young vine in precisely the same manner as before
directed ; but, in place of carrying the trunk upright, in order
to have bearing shoots come out of the side of it, as in plate S,
you cut it down to within two eyes of the bottom. Suppose vmi
have got the vine, fig. 2, plate S. Instead of bringing out from
it four shoots of a side, bring out only the two bottom ones, cut-
VI.] LIST OF FUUITS. 21 1
ting the top of the trunk off pretty elose down to the highest
of the two first shoots from the hottom. These two shoots may
be suffered to bear the first year after they come out ; but they
are then to be suffered to remain co form limbs for the bearing
shoots to go out of; and these bearing shoots are to go up the
wall perpendicularly, instead of horizontally, as they do on the
trellis-work. .All the rules for cutting out the shoots alternately
are the same in this case as in the other. The vine might be
tiained against the wall horizontally as against the trellis-work;
hut it would not be so convenient ; for, the two horizontal limbs
left at the bottom may be carried to any length against a wall ; so
that one vine would, in time, be sufficient for a wall of consider-
able extent. I have seen such limbs forty feet long, supplying an
abundance of bearing wood to cover the wall. If you choose you
may, at every three or four yards distance, cause these bottom
limbs to touch the ground, and, if pegged down and covered with
a little part of the earth, they would strike root there. The up-
right bearing shoots should be tacked to the wall in a serpentine
manner, which checks the flow of the sap and makes them bear
better all over the vine. Under ylass the training and pruning
are precisely the same as against a wall : two limbs running along
at the bottom of the glass, and shoots coming out, pruned, and
tied up in the manner directed in the case of the wall. Against a
house, you want a lofty trunk. You carry it to the height that
the situation requires, and train by side-shoots, just in the manner
directed for the trellis in the case of the espalier. A roof is only
a Avail lying in a sloping direction, and the training and pruning
are precisely those directed for the wall. Such is the manner of
pruning vines in what is called lony-jn'unwg ; but there is a
method very different, called the short pruning, which very much
resembles the method I have described for pruning the currant-
tree. Instead of alternate bearing shoots, brought out of the
trunk, as in the espalier form, for instance, you suffer these
shoots, as in plate S, fig. 3, to remain perpetually. They send
out annually side-shoots. These you cut off to within one or two
eyes of the limb, and, out of these little artificial spurs come, the
next year, shoots to bear the fruit. The vine bears only on
shoots that come out of the last year's wood, and therefore, these
spurs would become too long in a very short time ; so that you
must cut them out close to the limb, at the end of a year or two,
p 2
212 FRUITS. [chap.
and others will be always coming out to supply their place. Whe-
ther against a wall, under glass, against a house, or on a roof,
you observe the same rule : your vine is furnished with per-
petual limbs instead of being annually furnished with new and
long shoots. Hoping that I have made this matter of training
and pruning vines intelligible to the reader, I have now to speak
of the management of the fruit, of the soil suitable for vines, and
of the sorts of grapes. When the grapes get to be of the size of
a pea, or thereabouts, they should be thinned in the bunch with a
sharp-pointed scissors. More than half of them, and those the
smallest, of course, should be cut out, otherwise they will not be
so fine ; and, in some cases, the fruit will be so closely pressed
together on the bunch as to cause moulding and rotting. It is
supposed, and I believe the fact, that thinning the grapes adds
greatly to the weight of the bunch, and certainly it heightens
greatly the quality of the fruit. As to the soil for grapes, it
cannot be too rich. The ground should be dug about the roots not
only in the fall and spring, but even in summer. The earliest
grape, is what we call the black July, and what the French call the
noir hdtif ; the Chasselas, which is a white grape, approaching to
a yellow, is also very early ; the Black Hamburgh is a fine grape
and a great bearer, and this is the sort of the famous Hampton
Court vine ; the TVhite sweet-water is a very fine grape ; and
these four would satisfy me ; but I shall here add the Kew list of
grapes, and with that list I conclude this long article. Burgundy,
Black Cluster, Black July, Common White Muscadine, Parsley-
leaved Muscadine ; these are called, in the Hortus Kewensis,
wall- grapes ; then, as house-grapes, come the Black Damascus,
Muscat of Alexandria, Royal Muscadine, Black Frankendale,
Black Hamburgh, Black Prince, Black Frontignac, Grizzfy
Frontignac, Red Frontignac, White Frontignac, White siveet-
ivater, Marseilles, White Nice, Syrian.
287. WALNUT. — The way to raise walnut-trees is this.
When the walnuts are quite ripe, make them perfectly dry and
preserve them in precisely the manner directed for the filbert.
Sow them late in February, and the tree will be a foot high by the
next fall. If it be to stand where it is sowed, nothing more is
necessary than to keep the ground about it clean, and to prune
off the side-shoots at the bottom, always leaving a tolerable head
until you have a clear trunk of the height that you desire. Jf the
VI.] DISEASES OF FRUIT-TREKS. 213
tree be to be transplanted, you ought to take it up in the fall
alter the spring of sowing it; for it has a long tap-root, and will
remove with great difficulty if you suffer it to remain for two or
three years. When you take the young plant up, cut off the tap-
root to within six inches of the part which met the top of the
ground ; transplant it into a nursery ; let it stand there for thrGe
years, and then it will remove with a good bushy root. Keep the
side-shoots pruned off in the manner before directed ; and the
head of the tree will form itself. It is said that walnut-trees
should be threshed or beaten, a saving which has certainly arisen
from the want of a good reason for knocking down the fruit,
which, like nuts and filberts, should always hang till it drops from
the tree.
DISEASES AND VERMIN.
2SS. I have reserved until now the remarks necessary to be
made upon the diseases to which fruit-trees are subject ; and also
on the insects and other mischievous living things by which they
are injured. I have reserved, too, until now, the observations to
be made relative to divers mischievous insects which do injury to
the herbaceous plants of the kitchen-garden. I shall now speak
of the whole under one head, which will be more convenient to
the reader than if the remarks with regard to them had been scat-
tered throughout the book.
2S9. CANKER. — Apple-trees are greatly afflicted by the
canker, which is a rotting of the bark in particular spots ; pro-
ducing, in time, the destruction of the branch or limb. If per-
ceived when at first coming, it may sometimes be cut quite, out ;
and, if that cannot be done, its ravages may be stayed by paring
off all the perished bark till you come to the quick, and cutting
the edges of that quick very smooth with a very sharp knife, this
bark will grow a little again and have round edges ; the place
should be washed once or twice a year with soap and water to keep
out the insects, which are always endeavouring to harbour round
these wounded spots. As to the putting on of plaster of any
kind, I have tried it often, and have never found it of any use.
But, observe, neither a tree nor a limb is to be abandoned merely
214 FRUITS. [chap.
because it is cankered : in many cases, the cankered part of the
tree bears best; and it so happens that I have an apple-tree, at
this time, one limb of which is half cut off by the canker ; that
limb bears more than all the rest of the tree ; and it was from
that very limb that I cut the branch of beautiful fall-pippins that
were exhibited last autumn (1828) at my shop in Fleet -street. So
that, a tree is not to be despised merely because it is cankered.
The canker comes very frequently from bruises given to the tree
by the carelessness of gardeners, or by the friction of limbs one
against another. It very frequently comes from the rubbing of
limbs and branches against the stakes; and this makes it so
dangerous to plant great trees for an orchard. However, I have
seen apple-trees that were old and cankered when I was a boy,
and that continue to bear well unto this day. It is a thing to be
guarded against, and to be got rid of if possible : it is sometimes
fatal, but by no means generally so.
290. COTTON-BLIGHT.-— This disease makes its appear-
ance like little bunches of cotton-wool stuck upon the joints or
along the shoots of apple-trees, which leave, after they are rubbed
off, little round pimples or lumps ; and it does the same with
regard to the roots that it does to the limbs and the shoots.
Under this white stuff, there are innumerable insects, which, when
squeezed by the finger, are of the colour of blood. It is a very
nasty thing, very pernicious to apple-trees ; and it also comes on
the joints of vines. There is no cure but rubbing the stuff off
mechanically as fast as it appears, and washing the place well
with something strong, such as tobacco juice. The potato,
which some people look upon as so nutritious, very nearly poisons
the water in which it is boiled ; and an Irish gentleman once told
me that that water would cure the cotton-blight. Rubbing the
part with mercurial ointment will certainly do it ; but thou you
must get at the root as well as at the limbs and the branches : if
von take up a young tree that has the cotton-blight, cut the
knobs off from the roots, cleanse the tree perfectly well and re-
plant it, and it is very likely the disease will not return. If it
once get complete possession of a large tree, the tree will soon
become useless. But, as this pest spreads itself in the ground round
about the trees, and there seems to nestle during the winter, I re-
commend good cultivation of the ground under apple-trees, if only
to distort) and confound the operations of this destroyer. Moving
VI.] DISEASES OF FllUIT-TkKHS. 215
deeply, ami two or three times, from the beginning of winter to
the middle of April, will give it an uneasy life at least, and the
possibility of stopping its ravages is worth the attempt.
291. MILDIAV, which the French call WHITE BLIGHT,
seizes the spring shoots of peach and nectarine trees, makes them
white as if dusted over with meal or lime, and fixes itself in spots
on the fruit. I have heard of, and have seen tried, tobacco
smoke, lime water, and several other things as remedies, all of
which 1 have seen invariably to fail. All you can do is, to cut
off the shoots and leaves that have it, and to suffer others to come
out. This blight sometimes comes upon apple-trees.
292. LlCli. — Prodigious quantities of these come upon the
points of the shoots of peaches, nectarines, and cherries, which
cause them to curl up and become black ; and, after this, gene-
rally, the branches suffer greatly : the only remedy is, to cut these
points off as soon as you perceive them beginning to curl. You
may also wash the trees, or fumigate with tobacco.
293. GUM. — Al! stone fiuit; cherries, plums, peaches, nec-
tarines, and apricots, are liable to the gum, which sometimes pro-
ceeds from injudicious pruning, and sometimes from the tree
having but a poor root. It very frequently comes after the cutting
out of a luxuriant branch, especially if that branch be cut off
near to the trunk and in the spring or summer, which it never
ought to be if it can be avoided. A tree will sometimes gum,
and cease to gum afterwards ; and, though it gum, it will bear.
If it continue to gum, and the gum appear in several parts of it at
the same time, and attack the tree severely, it will soon cease to
produce wood fit for bearing, and the sooner it is cut down and
thrown away, the better.
294. PEACH-BUG. — This is a thing between louse and bug :
it is of a green colour, and clings along upon the wood of the
peach-trees, and of nectarines of course. These are destroyed
very quickly by fumigating the trees with strong tobacco-smoke,
or washing them with water in which tobacco lias been steeped.
It is rather difficult to fumigate against a wall ; but, at anv rate,
the wood can be well washed with tobacco water. These insects,
however, must be destroyed by one means or another; or thev
will spoil the crop for the vear, and spoil the tree too.
2!).">. MAGGOT. — There is a maggot which comes in apple-
trees and pear-trees, but particularly the former, just before the
216 FRUITS. [chap.
tree opens its blossoms. You will see the young leaves that have
come out curl up longwise. Jf you open those curls, you will
find enveloped in a very small web, a little maggot that you
can hardly clearly discern with the. naked eye. From this, its
birth-place, it creeps away into the cups of the blossoms, and
there feeds upon the germ of the fruit ; and becomes a visible
maggot a full third of an inch long, having a black head and a
greenish body. When the blossoms are not abundant, and some-
times even when thev are, this wretched thing feeds upon the roots
or germs of the buds, as well as upon the blossoms. It enters
down into the heart of the bud which has just bursted out into
little leaves, and you will see those leaves die in the month of
April, just as you will see cabbage-plants or lettuce-plants die
when attacked by the grub or the wire-worm. Of a row of
lettuce -plants, you are surprised to see one lopping its leaves
down flat upon the ground, and the rest standing bolt upright ;
but, if vou take it up, you will find that a grub-worm or wire-
worm has eaten out the heart of its root. Just in like manner
does this maggot destroy the buds of apple-trees ; and, as in the
case of a row of lettuce- plants, it, like the grub or wire- worm,
will, if let alone, go from bud to bud, from one end of a branch
to the other. The killing of the buds by these maggots is one
great cause of the canker in apple-trees: they make a wound
which descends down to the very wood : I have, in numerous in-
stances, watched the progress of the wound, and have seen it turn
to complete and destructive canker. As to prevention, in this
case, I am not certain of the source of the maggot ; but I think
it proceeds from eggs deposited upon the bark during the previous
summer, and clinging there until the spring. What I have done
is, to wash all the limbs and stout branches of the trees well in the
month of March with a hard-brush, soap, and tobacco juice ;
and certain it is that my trees have not been infested by these
maggots since. If you find them at work upon a tree, watch the
flagging of the buds ; cut the flagging buds out with a sharp pen-
knife : you will find a maggot in the heart, and will, of course,
put an end to its spoliations. This is another reason why espaliers
are better than standards : this work is easily performed upon
an espalier : but, on a standard, impossible. Sometimes you
see the petals of the blossoms curl up ; and there you find the
maggot. It is better to take one blossom out of the bunch at
VI.] DISEASES OF FRUIT-TREKS. 217
once ; for, if the maggot remain, it will destroy the whole. A\'c
very often see whole bunches of blossoms, leaves and all, shrivel
up suddenly : the maggot has done this, and is gone before you
perceived the mischief. The whole of standard-trees are fre-
quently nearly stripped in this way : people call it blight ; but, in
general, appear to know nothing of the cause.
296. 1J1 RDS. — The way to keep birds from fruit, and, indeed,
from everything else, is to shoot them, or frighten them away, or
cover over effectually with nets the object which they covet. I
have spoken occasionally of the care to be taken in this respect ;
but, in all cases, where birds are very fond of the thing you have,
vou must keep them away, or give up the cultivation of the thing;
for it is time and labour thrown away, to raise things and then let
them be destroyed in this manner. There is one season when to de-
fend yourself is very difficult ; I mean the spring, when the birds
attack the buds. There are certain buds which the sparrows will
destroy, just when they are sending out their fruit : but the great
enemies of buds are the bulfinches, the chaffinches, and, above all,
the greenfinches, which assail the buds of plums of all sorts in a
most furious manner. They are hard driven for food at this time
of the year ; and they will actually strip whole branches. It is,
however, contended by some persons, that, after all, they do no
harm ; for that, there are insects in the bud which they eat j and
that it is not the herbage that they want, but the animal, seeing
that birds live upon grain, and pulse, and insects, and not upon
green things. This is by no means true : they do live upon green
things, or at least they eat them, as we see fowls eating grass, during
a great part of every day. I believe that these little birds eat the
buds, and are not at all looking after insects. The wild pigeons
in America live, for about a month, entirely upon the buds of the
sugar maple, and are killed by hundreds of thousands, by persons
who erect bough-houses, and remain in a maple wood with guns
and powder and shot, for that purpose. If we open the craw of
one of these little birds, we find in it green stuff of various
descriptions, and, generally, more or less of grass, and therefore it is
a little too much to believe, that, in taking away our buds, they
merely relieve us from the insects that would, in time, eat us up.
To keep birds from buds is a difficult matter. You cannot net all
your trees ; nor can you fire with shot among your trees without
doing a greater harm than that which you wish to prevent. Birds
2 IS FRUITS. [CHAP.
are exceedingly cunning in their generation ; but, luckilv for us
gardeners, they do not know how to distinguish between the
report of a gun loaded with powder and shot, and one that is only
loaded with powder. Very frequent firing with powder will alarm
them so that they will quit the spot, or, at least, be so timid as to
become comparatively little mischievous ; but there is what, to me,
is a recent discovery in this matter, and which I have hitherto
practised with complete effect. Jt has the great recommendation
of good inventions, perfect simplicity : having a bed of radishes
or other things that you wish to keep birds from coming upon,
stick a parcel of little pegs about a foot long into the sides of the
bed, at distances of about three yards apart, and then take a ball
of coarse white sewing cotton, tie the end of it to the top of one
of these little sticks, and then strain the cotton on to another,
fastening it round the top of every stick, and going in a zig-zag
across the bed. What the little picking and scratching devils
think of these threads I know not, but it keeps them off, and that
is enough for our purpose. I imagine that it inspires them with
doubt, and as doubt has great influence upon all the human race,
why should it not have the same upon these timid and watchful
creatures ?
297. MICE. — Very troublesome creatures. They commit their
depredations by night, and must be well looked after. Brick
traps are the best things; for, as to poisoning them, you may
poison at the same time vour cat or your dog. Great vigilance,
however, is required to keep down mice ; but it ought to be reso-
lutely done.
298. RATS. — If the garden be near to a house or outbuildings,
and especially near to a farm-yard, where dogs and ferrets are not
pretty constantly in motion, the rats will be large sharers in the
finest of the fruit that the garden produces. On the walls, in the
melon- bed, even in the strawberry-beds, they will take awav the
prime of the dessert. Thev do but taste, indeed, of each, but
then thev are guests that one does not like to eat with. Here is
absolutely no remedy other than dogs and ferrets. 1 have seen a
wall of grapes pretty nearly cleared by rats, some farm buildings
being at the backside of the wall : these nasty things must, there-
fore, be destroved bv one means or another.
209. MOLES. — These cannot get into a garden with a Avail
round it. If they come through or under the hedge, and make
VI.] DISBAtBI OF li&IT-TRBBf. 210
their workings v: IBle, they ought to be caught without delay;
for, if suffered to ^et to a head, they do a great deal of mischief,
besides the ugliness which they produce.
800; ANTS. — A vcrv pretty suhject for poets, hut a most dis-
mal one for gardeners ; for it is one of the most mischievous of
all things and most difficult of all to guard against or to destroy.
It is mischievous in many ways ;ul(l a" t'ie sorts of ants are equally
mischievous. Those which have their nests in little hillocks on
the ground; that is to say, the small ant, is the sort which most
frequently display their mischievous industry in the gardens. I
once had a melon-hed that underwent a regular attack from the
community of horse ants, as the country people call them ; that
is, the largest ant that we know anything of. 1 know nothing
but fire or boiling water, or squeezing to death, that will destroy
ants ; and, if you pour boiling water on their nests in the grass,
you destroy the grass ; set fire to a nest of the great ants, and you
burn up the hedge or the trees, or whatever else is in the neigh-
bourhood. As to squeezing them to death, they are amongst the
twigs and roots of your trees and plants ; they are in the blossoms,
and creeping all about the fruit; so that, to destroy them in this
wav, vou must destroy that also which you wish to protect against
their depredations. Ants injure everything that they touch; but
thev are particularly mischievous with regard to wall-trees: where
they attack successively bud, blossom, leaf, and fruit. There is
no method of keeping them from the wall. They may be kept
from mounting espaliers by putting tar round the stem of the tree,
and round the stakes that the limbs are tied to ; but there is no
keeping them from the wall, unless by killing them. Mr. Forsyth
recommended to make the ground very smooth near the bottom
of the tree that they attacked ; then to make smooth holes with a
sharp-pointed stake or iron bar, down into which, as he says, they
will go ; and then he recommends to pour water into these holes,
and drown them. Monsieur dk Comble recommends the laving
of sheep's trotters or cow-heels with the skin on, near the attacked
tree, and that, when these be well covered with ants, to plunge
them into a bucket of water, drown the ants, then put the sheep's
trotters near the tree again to wait for another cargo. By these
means something may be done, to be sure ; but, the true way is,
to find out the nest from which they come; for they are extremely
scrupulous in this respect ; it is only one tribe that makes its
220 fruits. [chap.
attack upon one and the same object. If you look attentively,
you will find that, in the morning, very early, they all come in the
same direction, and that they go in exactly the same way back
at night. Trace them to their fortress; and, when it is quite
night, treat them to a bucket of water that is as nearly upon the
boil as possible. You kill the whole tribe. When my melon-
beds were attacked by the horse-ants, I set to work to discover
whence they came. 1 traced them along a brick wall. Then out
of the garden between the door-frame and the wall. Then along
at the bottom of the edge of the wall on the side of a lawn ; then,
after having made an angle along the wall, going, as I thought,
over it into a meadow on the other side. Every corner of hedge
and ditch of that meadow was examined to discover the nest,
but in vain. Looking back to the spot where I thought they
went over the wall, we discovered that they turned along the top
of the wall, and went under the roof of a summer-house that was
ceiled below : having lifted up a tile, there we saw bushels of
ants with little sticks and straws, the result of years of their de-
testable industry. A copper of water was made to boil against the
evening. It was taken to the spot in a boiling state as nearly as
possible ; everything was prepared for the purpose, and by mid-
night, scarcely a handful of them were left alive ; and my melon-
bed, which I was actually upon the point of giving up as lost, was
suffered to proceed unmolested. The greatest care, therefore,
ought to be taken, especially if grass ground be near the garden,
to hunt out ants' nests, and to destroy them.
301. SPIDER. — I do not know that the common spider does
any harm to the gardener, and I know that it frequently does good
by killing the flies ; but there is a red spider which is very mis-
chievous to vines, especially when under glass. If attended to,
however, they are easily destroyed, and the destruction of them
should not be neglected. Plentifully washing of the trees with
water is the great remedy, and, in hot-houses, syringes are made
use of for this purpose.
302. CATERPILLAR. — Very few more mischievous creatures
than this infest the gardens. In the first place, it is a most de-
structive enemy of fruit-trees ; apples, pears, plums, quinces,
medlars, and gooseberries, but particularly apples and plums are
literally flayed alive by this nasty insect. Hundreds of trees to-
gether are, early in the mouth of June, very frequently completely
VI.] DISEASES OF FRU IT-TRK BS. 221
stripped of every leaf bv the caterpillars. Of their progenitors I
know little J but that they appear in the winter, when the leaf
lias fallen, as a little crusty shell-like ring fastened tightly round
the twigs of the tree, and generally upon apple-trees. This crust
is not more than half an inch long, and it is pricked all over in
regular rows of holes, looking something like a piece of an
old thimble twisted round the twig. In the spring a swarm of
little caterpillars issues from this crust, and works its way all over
the tree, and, to an ordinary observer, they make their first ap-
pearance in a web formed into the shape of a bag or sort of wal-
let attached to the branches of trees. And this bag is a small
thing at first ; but it grows larger and larger as the caterpillars
within it increase in size. If you open one of these bags, a goodly
tribe glads your sight ; and, if you leave the bag till the cater-
pillars grow too big for it and open it themselves, they sally forth
in every direction, and strip the tree of its leaves. Prevention is
not, however, in this case, very difficult. If they come on espa-
liers, you pick the bag off as soon as you perceive it, and crush it
under your foot. If they come on standard-trees, you must take
a ladder; but a better way is, to load a gun with powder, and to
blow the bags from the trees. If once they escape from the bag
and go on their travels, you have no remedy. If you shake the
tree and bring part of them to the ground, they crawl up again.
Lime has no effect upon them ; and your only hope is, that your
other enemies, the sparrows, will lend their assistance in deliver-
ing you from these ; and I do verily believe, that, were it not for
the sparrows, and other birds, these insects would make it next to
impossible to cultivate gardens in England. They have no slugs
and snails in America ; but caterpillars they have, and they some-
times strip an orchard of every one of its leaves. There are cater-
pillars which infest the cabbages and the Swedish turnip, and
some other herbaceous plants. These manifestly proceed from
the butterfly ; but, unfortunately, they do not make their appear-
ance in little pockets or bags ; but you make the first discovery
of the honour of the visit that they are paying you by perceiving
their gnawings upon the edgings of the leaves of the plants. Let
them alone for a little while, and they will go from cabbage to
cabbage until there is not a bit of leaf left in the whole patch.
They leave you the skeleton of a cabbage, taking away all the
flesh, and leaving all the bones ; that is to say, the stalk of the
222 FRUITS. [chap.
cabbage and the ribs of the leaves. These are most mischievous
things; they are wholly insensible to the powers of lime : in heat
they delight ; wet will not injure them ; frost is their only de-
stroyer ; and many a time have I prayed for winter in order to see
an end of the caterpillars. In order to mitigate the mischief,
and, indeed, in a great measure to put a stop to it, look narrowly
among your plants of the cabbage kind about the middle of the
summer. If you see the butterflies busy, expect their followers in
due time. Watch the plants : as soon as you see one attacked,
take it entirely up, shake the caterpillars from it upon the ground,
put them to death with your foot, and carry the plant away to the
pigs. 'Tis very rarely that the whole or any considerable part of
a piece of cabbages is attacked at once ; and therefore you may,
in some measure, guard against the mischiefs of this pernicious
insect, of which there are several sorts, some green, some brown,
some smooth, some hairy, and all equally mischievous.
303. SNAILS. — From the curious construction of the snail,
it is known to everybody in town as well as country. It is very
mischievous, and especially amongst fruit-trees, where it annoys
the fruit, as well as the leaf, but particularly the fruit. It is a
great enemy of the apricot and the plum, both of which it will eat
whether in the green or in the ripe state. It is very mischievous
amongst the plants in the garden in general ; but its size and its
habits and manners make it not difficult to destroy. Its places
of harbour are, behind the trunks or big limbs of wall-trees, in a
garden, or, round the butts of the trees that form the hedge of the
outside of the garden. Snails lie in such places all the winter
long, and never stir till they are warmed into life in the spring.
Many persons have kept snails for a year or more nailed up in a
box, and have found them just as lively afterwards as if they had
never fasted at all. In winter time, in dry and frosty weather,
snails should be routed out from all their fastnesses, and destroyed.
This is the most effectual way of guarding against their depreda-
tions; for, when the leaves come out, they have shelter, they
are exceedingly cunning in availing themselves of that shelter,
but though you finally discover and kill them, they spoil your
fruit first.
304. SLUG. — This is a snail without a shell, and like the snail,
likes neither sun nor frost. Some slugs are black, others whitish,
others yellow. The great black slug and the yellow slug live chiefly
VI.] DISEASES OK FRU1T-TUKF.S. 223
upon worms, and do not touch plants of any kind. The mis-
chievous thing is the little slug that hides itself in the ground or
under grass or leaves, and that comes out in the night, or in the
rain, and cats the garden plants of almost every description more
or less, and sometimes pretty nearly clears a field of wheat. Slugs
cannot live under the shining sun, nor can they move ahout much
except when the ground is wet or moist from dew or rain ; then
it is that they come forth and make up for lost time. They are
propagated amongst weeds and grass, and anything that affords
constant shade and tranquillity. A garden constantly clean is,
therefore, the most effectual prevention ; hut if they come, they
must absolutely be killed, or you must give up your crop. The
way to kill them is this. Take hot lime, in a powdered state, put
it into a coarsish bag ; and after night-fall or before sun-rise, in
the dew, or on the moist ground, go over their haunts, shake the
bag and let the fine powder fall upon the ground : some little par-
ticle will fall upon every slug that is abroad ; and every slug that
is touched with the lime will die. If rain come it will destroy the
power of the lime, and then it will be necessary, perhaps, for you
to repeat the remedy several different times.
305. ROOK-WORM. — This is an underground enemy; a
miner and sapper. It is a short worm or long maggot, as big
round as a thick goose-quill, body white, anc| head partly red
and partly black. It is a fact, I suppose, that the May-bug, or
chaffer, comes from this worm. The French call it the ver hannc-
ton, which corroborates that opinion. It attacks the roots of
plants, and will even attack the roots of trees, and will now-and-
then destroy some young trees. It will clear a patch of cabbages
in a very short time. It is under-ground, and therefore not to
be guarded against ; but a garden may very soon be ridded of it.
First, kill every one that you meet with in digging; next, the
moment you see a plant begin to flag, dig it up and take up the
worm. If the worm be on its travels, you are sure that it is gone
towards the next adjoining plant, to the right or to the left.
Pursue it both ways with the spade, and ten to one but you over-
take it. A little perseverance in this way will soon clear a garden
of the rook-worm ; but as to our fields, their crops would be abso-
lutely devoured, in many cases ; or, rather, the plants would be
destroyed, were it not for the rooks, which are amongst the most
useful of the animals in this country; and really it is too hard to
224 FRUITS. [chap.
grudge them a little of the corn when they have so largely con-
tributed towards bringing the whole of it to perfection.
30(i. BLACK GRUB— It should be called the brown grub, for
it is not black. In its workings, it is half way between a rook-
worm and a caterpillar. It lies snugly under the ground near the
roots of the plant in the day-time, and comes up at night, eats
the plant off at the stem, or eats out its heart. This is a most
perverse as well as a most pernicious thing; it is not content, like
the caterpillar, the snail, or the slug, to feed upon the leaves; but
it must needs bite out the heart, or just cut off the plant at the
bottom. Lime has no power over it : nothing will keep it off:
no means but taking it by the hand : in a garden this may be
done, by examining a little about the ground just round the stem
of every plant ; for as soon as it has destroyed one plant, it gets
ready for another for the next night's work. In a garden, this
thing may be destroyed, or kept down ; but, in a field, it is impos-
sible, and many a field has had its crop almost totally destroyed
by this grub.
307. WIRE- WORM.— This is a little yellow worm, which, at
full growth, is about an inch long ; and it is called wire-worm be-
cause it is very tough and difficult to pinch asunder. It is bred in
grass-land, and in old tufts of grass in arable land. A piece of
land digged or ploughed up from a meadow, or grass-field, will,
for a year or two, be full of these worms, which carry off whole
fields of wheat sometimes. In gardens they are very destructive.
They attack tender-rooted plants, make a hole on one side of the
tap-root, and work their way upwards till they come to the heart.
When they have done that, they go to another plant, and so on.
You perceive when they are at work, by the plant dropping its
leaves ; and the only remedy is, to watch the plants narrowlv, and,
as soon as you perceive the tips of the leaves beginning to flag, to
take it up, and destroy the worms. They are particularly fond
of lettuces that have been transplanted ; and I have had whole
rows of lettuces destroyed by these worms, in spite of every pre-
caution.
30S. WOOD-LOUSE.— It is a little grey- coloured insect of a
flat shape, and about twice as long as it is broad. When you
touch it, or when it sees itself in danger, it forms itself into a ball,
and very much resembles a Dutch cheese, and is, by the children
in the country, called the cheese-bob. Its name of wood-lottse
VI.] DISEASES OF FKUIT-TKKKS. 22.")
comes from its habit of living and breeding in rotten wood, and
under hoards or slabs that are lying upon the ground; hut it
also haunts very much the cracks in bricks, and the holes in the
joints of walls. It feeds upon buds and blossoms, and also upon
the fruit itself. When it gets into hot-beds, it hides round the
edge of the frame, and does a great deal of mischief to the plants,
especially when they are young. Cabbage-leaves or lettuce-leaves
aid in a hot-bed or against the edge of the wall, will invite them
to take shelter as a place of retreat for the day, all the dilapida-
tions being committed in the night. You lift the leaves in the
day-time and kill them ; and, further, as to walls, the great
remedy is to keep all the joints well pointed, and to fill up any
cracks that there may be in the bricks.
309. EAR-WIG. — This is a most pernicious insect, which
feeds on flowers and on fruit, and which, if it congregated like
the ant, would actually destroy every thing of this sort. Its
favourite flowers are those of the carnation kind. To protect
very curious plants against them, the florists put their stages on
legs, and surround each leg with a circle of water contained in a
dish which is so constructed as to admit the leg through the
middle of it, seeing that the ear-wig is no swimmer. Others make
little things of paper like extinguishers, and put them on the
tops of the sticks to which the carnation-stalks are tied. The
ear-wigs commit their depredations in the night, and they find
these extinguishers most delightful retreats from the angry eye of
man and from the burning rays of the sun. Take off the extin-
guishers, however, in the morning, give them a rap over a basin
of water, and the enjoyments of the ear-wigs are put an end to at
once. They are very nasty things in fruit of the stone kind, and
particularly the apricot. They make a way in the foot-stalk of
the fruit, get to the stone and live there day and night; so that,
when you open a fine apricot, you frequently find its fine juice
half-poisoned by three or four of these nasty insects. As soon,
therefore, as the wall-fruit begins to change its colour, the tree
should be well furnished with extinguishers made of cartridge-
paper, and able to resist a shower. By great attention in this
way you destroy them all before the fruit be ripe enough for them
to enter. But, one great protection against all these creeping
things, is, to stir the ground very frequently along the foot of
Q
226 FRUITS. [chap*
the wall. That is their great place of resort; and frequent
stirring and making the ground very fine, disturbs the peace of
their numerous families, gives them trouble, makes them uneasy,
and finally harasses them to death.
310. WASPS. — These are enemies of another sort, and, in
some years, most troublesome they are. They fix upon the finest
fruit, and, in some seasons, long before it be ripe. They will eat
a green-gage plum to a shell ; and, while they spoil your fruit, they
will not scruple to sting you if you come to interrupt their enjoy-
ment. The first thing to do, is, to destroy all the wasps' nests
that you can find anywhere in the neighbourhood. These nests
are generally in banks. Discover the nest in the day-time,
open it with a spade at night, and pour in boiling water. There
is a little bird, called the red-start, that destroys the wasps ; but
boys are their great enemies ; and about sixpence a nest will keep
any neighbourhood pretty clear of wasps. But, the great remedy,
is, to kill them when they come to the tree, and that is done in
this way : you fill a pretty large phial half full of beer mixled with
brown sugar : the wasps, attracted by this, go down into the phial
and never come out again. The phials must be emptied every
day, if any thing like full, and put up again with fresh sugar and
beer. A string is tied round the neck of the phial, which is thus
fastened round some part of the tree. There must, however, be a
considerable number of these phials attached to every tree.
311. FLIES. — Great flies, like the flesh-flies, feed upon all
the softer fruits ; and even upon apples and pears. They are
destroved or kept down precisely in the manner directed for the
wasps. Some persons, in order to preserve fine pears, cover them
over with bunting, a piece of which they tie completely over each
pear : this is a very troublesome, but a very effectual, method.
VII.] SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. 227
CHAPTER VII.
The formation of Shrubberies and Flower Gardens ; and the
Propagation and Cultivation of the several sorts of S/wubs
and Flowers,
312. On this part of my subject it is not agreeable to my plan
to be very minute, except as to the several kinds of shrubs and
flowers, the lists of which I shall make as complete as I can: it is
not for the use of florists that I pretend to write ; but for the use
of persons who have the means of forming prettv gardens, and
who have a taste for making use of these means ; a taste which,
I am sorry to say, has been declining in England for a great
many years.
SHRUBBERIES.
313. As to the form of shrubberies, or pleasure grounds, that
must greatly depend upon adventitious circumstances so various
that particular directions must he inapplicable in nine cases out
of ten. There are some things, however, which are general to all
situations, and, with respect to these, I shall offer my opinion.
Shrubberies should he so planted, if they be of any considerable
depth, as for the tallest trees to be at the back, and the lowest in
front ; if one could have one's will, one would go, by slow degrees,
from a dwarf Kalmia to a Catalpa or a Horse-chesnut. Such a
slope, however, would require the depth of a mile ; and, therefore,
that is out of the question. But some attention may be paid
anywhere to the placing in proper relative position those trees
which are likely to combine well with one another in the most
dreary part of the year; so as to have cheerful colours as long as
possible. For this purpose, no shrubbery should be without ever-
greens, such as the smaller kind of firs, tree box and laurel ; and
a little observation will in one autumn teach the planter what
q2
228 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
colours the leaves of our deciduous trees become at that season,
and also which are the trees that retain their leaves the longest.
He will find that, in situations very much sheltered, some will
carry their leaves till very late indeed, and that others, be they
where they may, will soon lose them. The poplars, the ash, and
the elm, will retain their leaves well throughout the autumn if the
situation be sheltered and the weather tolerably dry, and these die
a very bright ijellow. The oak, the beech, and the sycamore, die
red, but the oak and beech retain their leaves longest, the latter
of these two, indeed, when young, retains them all the winter, but
they become brown before the spring. The lime, the birch, the
horse-chesnut, turn a dingy brown and fall soon, but particularly
the last, which becomes an unsightly tree early in September. If
the shrubbery be of narrow space, the best way is to have no very
tall shrubs at all, and to be content with an outside border of
lilacs or laurels. The walks, to be beautiful and convenient,
should be of gravel of a deep yellow, well-sifted and laid down in
the substantial manner directed for the walks of the kitchen-
garden. Such walks cannot be kept in neat order without box
edgings ; and every thing relating to box and to edgings has been
said in Chapter II. relative to the walks of the kitchen-garden.
314. Gravel walks are not to be kept in neat order without
being broken up once a year ; and that once ought to be about
the middle of the month of May. They are broken up with a
pick-axe, newly raked over, and rolled with a stone roller imme-
diately after the raking, and not the whole walk at once ; but a
bit at a time, so that the top be not dry when the roller comes
upon it : for, if it be, it will not bind. So nice a matter is this,
that, if a part be prepared for rolling, and if the hands be called
off to dinner before it be rolled, mats are laid on to shade it
from the sun until their return to work. This is a matter of
the greatest nicety : a very good eye is required in those who
rake previous to the rolling, and the rollers must have a very
steady hand, or there will be unevenness in the walk, which,
when properly laid, is certainly one of the most beautiful objects
in the world. If proper care have been taken in laying the
foundation of the walk, few or no weeds will come even on its
edges 3 but, if they should, they must be eradicated as soon as
they appear. Some leaves will fall even in summer, and the walk
must be swept with a soft broom once in the week, at least.
VII.] SHRUBBERIES. 220
315. But gran is another great ornament, and, perhaps, if
kept in neat order, the greatest of all. If grass be about to 1 it-
laid down, the ground should be well prepared : if too poor to
keep the grass fresh through a hot summer, it should be made
richer, and always deeply moved. The next thing is, to keep
the ground, whether on the sides of terraces, on a slope, or on a
level, perfectly smooth and even on the surface. To SOW grass is
not the way to have fine grass plats ; but to cut the turf from a
common or from some very ancient and closely-pressed pasture
where the herbage is fine. From our finest Downs, or from spots
in our Commons, the turf is generally taken ; and, short grass, as
the gardeners call it, is seen in perfection, I believe, nowhere but
in England. The old Duke of Orleans, showing Sir Frederick
Eden his gardens at Chantilly, coming to a grass-plat, said,
Here is something that you will like, at any rate ; and then
he told him that the turf of which the plat was formed
was actually imported from England, and cut upon Epsom
Down. The grass cut with a turfing-iron made for the purpose,
is rolled up, just like a piece of cloth, green-sward inwards,
the strips are cut by a line : and cut into pieces of from two
to four feet long. These are laid down in the fall of the year
on the place where they are to grow : they are placed and pressed
up verv closely together, being well beaten down with the back of
the spade as the workman proceeds ; and when the whole is laid,
a roller of iron or of stone, of sufficient weight, is passed over the
plat. During the next winter, care must be taken to roll again
when the ground is in a dry state, after every frost. In the month
of April, it will be necessary to begin to mow; for the grass will
grow very well. Grass-plats are the greatest beauties of pleasure
grounds if well managed ; but, unless you be resolved not to spare
the necessary expense for this purpose ; if you think that you
cannot have the perseverance to prevent your plat from becoming
a sort of half meadow .at certain times, the best way is not to
attempt the thing at all. During the month of May, grass must
be mowed once a week. From the first of June, to the middle
of July, and especially if the weather be wet, twice a week may
be necessary ; or, one mowing and one swarding or poling, and
sweeping. The mower can operate only in the dew : he must be
at his work by daylight, and the grass must be swept up before it
be dry. It is the general practice to mow every Saturday morning,
230 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
and to pole or sward the grass in the middle of the week, to
knock or cut off the heads of the daisies, and to take away the
castings of the worms, which are very troublesome in the greater
part of grass-plats. Where the thing is well done, the worm-
casts are rubbed off by a pole or rod the evening before the
mowing is performed, otherwise they interrupt the progress of the
scythe and take off its edge. A good short-grass mower is a
really able workman ; and, if the plat have a good bottom, he
will leave it very nearly as smooth and as even as the piece of
green cloth which covers the table on which I am writing : it is
quite surprising how close a scythe will go if in a hand that
knows how to whet it and use it. If, however, you do not resolve
to have the thing done in this manner, it is much better not to
attempt it at all. The decay of gardening in England in this
respect is quite surprising.
316. It is very much the fashion to have clumps of shrubs, or
independent shrubs, upon grass-plats : people must follow their
own taste ; but, in my opinion, nothing is so beautiful as a clear
carpet of green, surrounded with suitable shrubs and flowers, sepa-
rated from it by walks of beautiful gravel. The edges of grass,
whether against walks or against shrubberies, are sure to grow out,
and ought, therefore, to be kept in by trimming or paring off very
frequently ; for the whole ought to be as smooth as a piece of
cloth. If thistles or dandelions, or even daisies, come amongst
the grass, the mowing of them off is not enough, for each will
make a circle round the crown of its root and will overpower the
grass. This, however, is easily cured by cutting these roots off
deeply with a knife, and pulling them up. This done during two
summers successively, will destroy the dandelions and the thistles ;
and, as to the daisies, which have a shallow root, they may easily
be kept down, if not extirpated.
317- In the fall of the year, all shrubberies (in the month of
November) should be digged completely with a fork : all suckers
should be taken away, all dead wood taken out : all leaves carried
off or digged in, and better carried off than digged in ; for if
digged in, they make the ground hollow, and harbour slugs and
other vermin. The ground should be made smooth, therefore,
when it is digged : all hares and rabbits kept out, for they are very
mischievous in shrubberies, harking during the winter many of the
trees of the most valuable kind. During the summer, there should
VII.] SHRUBBERIES. 231
be two or three hoeings to prevent weeds from growing, and a
nice raking once a week to take up any leaves that may have
fallen ; for no trees or flowers will be seen to advantage unless
they stand upon a spot that is in neat order. Shrubs should not
be too much crowded by any means j it cramps them in their
growth, makes their shoots feeble, makes their bloom imperfect,
and they hide one another : a shrubhery should not be a mass of
indistinguishable parts ; but an assemblage of objects each clearly
distinguished from the other. The distribution should be such
as to ensure bloom in every season that bloom can be had ; and,
though shade is in some cases desirable, flowering shrubs to be
beautiful must not be shaded, except in instances so few as not to
warrant the supposition that there is ever to be a departure from
the general rule.
318. If there be water, every eye tells you that it ought to be
bordered by grass ; or, if of larger dimensions, by trees the
boughs of which touch its very edge : bare ground and water do
not suit at all. It was formerly the fashion to have a sort of canal
with broad grass-walks on the sides, and with the water coming
up to within a few inches of the closely-shaven grass ; and cer-
tainly few things were more beautiful than these. Sir William
Temple had one of his own constructing in his gardens at Moor
Park. On the outsides of the grass-walks were borders of beau-
tiful flowers. 1 have stood for hours to look at this canal, for
the good-natured manners of those days had led the proprietor to
make an opening in the outer wall in order that his neighbours
might enjoy the sight as well as himself; I have stood for hours,
when a little boy, looking at this object ; I have travelled far
since, and have seen a great deal ; but I have never seen anything
of the gardening kind so beautiful in the whole course of my life.
319. The present taste is on the side of irregularity: straight
walks, straight pieces of water, straight rows of trees, seem all to
be out of fashion ; but, it is also true that neatness ; that really
fine shrubberies and flower-gardens, have gone out of fashion at
the same time. People, however, must follow their own tastes in
these respects ; and it is useless to recommend this or that manner
of laying out a piece of ground. I proceed, therefore, to speak
of the propagation and management of shrubs, in the first place j
and shall then give a list of the several shrubs, mentioning under
each name any thing worthy of particular attention.
232 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
SHRUBS.
320. Shrubs are propagated in just the same way that fruit-
trees are, by cuttings, by slips, by layers, by grafting and budding
in some instances, and, in every instance, they may be propagated
by seed, and that, too, without the same inconvenience that occurs
in the case of fruit-trees ; because I know no instance of a shrub
the seed of which will not bear a flower like that of the parent
tree, though I am not sure that this is the case in every instance.
As often as they can be raised from seed, that is the best, though
in some instances the slowest way. Cuttings and layers, and the
other methods of grafting and budding, do not produce a plant so
vigorous and so healthy as if raised from seed ; and, though a
great number of shrubs are propagated from suckers, these suckers
have all the disadvantages which were mentioned when speaking
of the propagation of fruit-trees. They send out suckers again,
and, in a few years, if left alone, fill the whole ground with them.
This is very conspicuous in the case of the lilac, which is ahvavs
raised from suckers, but which may easily be raised from seed. I
now proceed to give a list of the shrubs in alphabetical order,
with a short description attached to each.
LIST OF SHRUBS.
ACACIA, the ROSE. — Latin, Robhiia Hispida. A shrub from
North America, where it grows to fifteen or twenty feet high ; and,
in June, and sometimes again in July and August, blows a rose-co-
loured pea-blossom flower hanging like bunches of grapes. The
leaves are larger and more rounded than those of the common aca-
cia, or locust, but otherwise are just like them. The branches are co-
vered with little prickles, when of the first and second year : after-
wards these fall off, but this quality has given the species its name
of hispida, which means hairy. It is not altogether elegant in its
form, but the beauty of its young branches, its luxuriant leaves,
and, above all, its delicate and abundant flowers, make it one of
the most desirable and esteemed shrubs either for the shrubbery,
bolder, or parterre j and the facility of procuring and cultivating
VII.] LIST OF SHRUBS. 233
it is an additional recommendation. Graft on the common acacia,
in just the same manner that you graft apples or pears (see par. 210,
for tongue-grafting), and, if you make any difference at all, graft
nearer to the ground than is there recommended ; and draw the
earth up with a hoe about the clay that you wrap round the
grafted plant, and this will keep up a moistness that renders the
operation more surely successful. The plants will flower the first
year, but, unless they are in a very sheltered situation, they should
have stakes driven in alongside of them, and should be tied to
these, for they are exceedingly brittle, and would be^ blown to
pieces by one high wind, without this precaution. The flowers
come on the same year's wood, therefore keep your plants short-
ened every year, if you wish them to flower low down ; but, if
you have them on lawns, or buried at all in the shrubbery, let
them have their way, only now-and-then cutting out dead wood
or broken limbs. It is perfectly hardy, and any soil almost suits
it, though, like most other things, it flourishes most in the finest
soil. The Smooth-trek Acacia.— Lat. Mimosa Ju/ibnssin, is
a green-house shrub. It is not ranked by the botanists with the
preceding plant, but I put them together as acacias, meaning to
have done with that genus of plants when 1 have finished this
paragraph. This plant is a native of the Levant, where it be-
comes a tree of thirty feet high, blows a rose-coloured flower in
August. It is propagated either by sowing the seeds, or by lay-
ing ; and, in cultivation, it requires a fresh and rather light mould ;
and, if put in the open ground, should be very carefully protected
from frosts and cold winds. Sponge-tree Acacia— Lat. Mt-
mosa famesiana, is also a green-house plant, but is rather less
hardv than the preceding. It conies from Saint Domingo, where it
grows to about fifteen feet high. Its wood is white and hard, and
its branches thorny ; its leaves are small, and shut up at the
decline of the sun,"as do those of several of the acacias and in
August it blows a small head of yellow and sweet-scented flowers.
Propagated in the same manner as the last.— PsKOJJO-AcAClA,
see Locust.
ALMOND, common dwarf.— hat. Amyffdahu nana. A hardy
tree, orioinally from Russia, growing about three feet high, and
Mowing a pink flower in March and April. Propagated by sow-
ing in a nursery, or where they are to stay : but the best sorts
are obtained by' grafting either on the common almond, or on
234 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
the plum tree. Silver- leaved Almond, Lat. A. argentea,
is a taller sort, from the Levant, growing eight or ten feet
high, blowing rose-coloured flowers in April, and having leaves
covered on both sides with a kind of down, of a silver colour.
Double Dwarf Almond — Lat. A. pumila, is a third sort, a
smaller tree than the last, but with remarkable double flowers of
a pale rose colour, appearing in May and often again in Sep-
tember. All these trees are cultivated in the same simple man-
ner. They are hardy, and very handsome when in flower, though
their not bearing leaves and flowers at the same time, is a re-
markable illustration of how much flowers borrow effect from
foliage. Propagate by grafting on the bitter almond, or on plum-
stocks, and give any situation and almost any soil. Cut out dead
wood when it occurs, and that will be all the pruning necessary
to these plants.
ALL -SPICE, Carolina. — Lat. Calycanthus Floridus. A
hardy and exceedingly odoriferous shrub of Carolina, eight feet
high, and blows a ruddy brown flower from May to August.
Fruitful Calycanthus. — Lat. C. fertilis. A hardy shrub of
North America, three or four feet high, and blows a reddish brown
flower from May to August. Both sorts propagated by layers;
but, as they take root with difficulty, it is best not to remove them
until the third year. It likes a deep and fresh soil, or still better,
heath-mould; and should not be quite exposed to the sun. If
propagated from seed, it should have artificial heat to bring it up,
otherwise it lies two years in the ground.
ALTHEA FRUTEX.— Lat. Hibiscus Syriacus. A beauti-
ful shrub. A native of Syria, the Levant, and North America,
and of which there are four varieties, the red, the purple, the
white, and the striped. It is a hardy late plant, coming into
leaf late in June, and blowing throughout August and September.
The flower comes on the young wood as well as on the present
vear's wood ; and its form is very much that of the holyhock. It
grows to eight or ten feet high, generally, in America, and will
grow quite as high here. Indeed, there is one now before the
door of the farm-house at the Duke of Devonshire's estate at
Chiswick that is full twelve feet high, and that blows regularly
every year. It ripens its seed here in an ordinarily good summer,
and, though generally propagated from cuttings or layers, is far
finer when propagated from the seed, which comes up the first
VII.] LIST OF SHRUBS. 23.5
year, and will do well even when sown in the open ground, The
young plants make a late shoot in the fall of the vear. which, if
frosts come early, will he pincdied by them, but yon can cut down
helow this in the next spring, ami your plant is hut the liner for
it. It is not vcrv difficult to please as to soil.
ANDROMEDA, tlw Marsh. — Lat. Andromeda polyfolia.
A heath ahout one foot high, which hlows a rose-coloured flower
in May. It grows well in any soil, but prefers shade, and earth
which is light, nourishing, and easy to penetrate. Propagated
either by suckers or by dividing the roots, and does verv well after
transplanting, for which February or March is a better time than
the autumn. When raised from seeds, sow in pots under glass ;
use a peat soil and cover the seeds very lightly over ; and put
them in fresh pots when they are an inch or two high, placing
them at such distances from each other as shall suffer them to
grow strong.
ANTHYLLIS the silvery, or Jupiter s beard. — Lat. An-
tliyllis barba Jams. A shrub of Provence and the island of Cor-
sica, which grows four or live feet high, and blows a pale yellow
flower in April and May. Propagated by layers, cuttings, suck-
ers, or seed sowed under a frame. Likes rich earth, and is a
green -house plant.
APPLE, the double-flowered. — See Pyrus.
ARBUTUS, or Strawberry-tree. — Lat. A. unedo. A large
evergreen shrub, and a native of Ireland, which blows in Sep-
tember and October. The flower is of a yellowish white, or
red. It bears a fruit very much resembling the strawberry. Pro-
pagated by layers, made in February, or the beginning of March;
also by seed, sown immediately after it is ripe, in pots of lightish
earth, which should be exposed to the south-east till the seed
comes up. When the plants are four or five inches high, they are
planted in small pots, and put into a house during the winter till
they are strong enough to put in the open earth. It is peculiarly
suited to lawns and shrubberies, where it makes a good show,
and grows to the height often or fifteen feet. Andrachne Ar-
butus is another species, from the Levant. It has larger flowers
of a deep red, but it is not so hardy, and, if planted in the open
ground, must be secured against frosts.
AZALEA, the ivhite-JIoiccred. — Lat. A. viscosa. A prettv and
hardy shrub from North America, about three feet high, and
236 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
blowing a white flower in June and July. Red-flowered. —
Lat. A. nudiflora, is a hardy shrub, also from North America,
about three feet high, and blows in May and June. Yellow -
flowered. — Lat. A. pontica. A hardy shrub, found near the Black
Sea. It is about three feet high, and blows in May. Propa-
gated by layers or by suckers, which should not be moved until
they have taken root well. They like black heath mould ; but do
well in any garden soil. These are all very ornamental shrubs \
they have none of them much leaf, but the white has the most.
The flower comes at the ends of the branches, and resembles, in
form, that of the common honey-suckle. Cut out dead wood,
and that is all the pruning you need do.
BARBERRY. — Lat. Berberis vulgaris. A thorny, indige-
nous shrub, which bears a great abundance of small oblong
red berries, and it is for these, either for pickling, or as an orna-
ment, that the tree is planted in our gardens and shrubberies. It
nevertheless serves to make good hedges, and requires no pruning,
and is contented with any soil. Propagate by sowing the seeds,
or by layers (which ought to remain two seasons before they are
cut off from the mother plant) or by suckers. There is another
sort, the Chinese, Lat. Sinensis.
BLADDER-SEXNA. — Lat. Colutea Arborescens. A shrub
of the south of France, Italy, and the Levant, which grows
ten or twelve feet high. It blows a yellow flower during the
whole summer, and bears the flower and the fruit at the same
time. Propagated by layers, or by sowing the seed in rich and
rather shady borders, or in an old hot-bed, where they must stay
till the following spring, when they may be put in a nursery till
the autumn, or planted, at once, where they are meant to stay.
Likes chalky soil. Bladder-Senna Oriental. — Lat. C. ori-
entalis. A hardy shrub from the Levant, about six feet high, blows
a yellowish red flower in June and July. Bladder-Senna,
scarlef-floircrcd. — Lat. C.frutescens. A hardy shrub, originally
from Africa, about four feet high, and blows in July. These two
latter are propagated in the same way as the first, and are equallv
hardy, and like the same soil.
BLADDER-NUT, Hve-Jeaved. — L&t. Staphylea pinnala. A
hardy shrub, common in England, about fifteen or twenty feet
high, and blows a white flower in April, May, and June. Blad-
DKK-Xut, three-leaved, — Lat, 8, tri/olia. A hardy shrub from
VII.] MST OF SHRUBS. 2^7
Virginia, not so high as the preceding one, and blows a white
flower in May and June. Propagated by suckers planted in the
autumn. Any soil or situation suits these.
BRAMBLE, flowering. — Lat. Rub us odorutus. A hardy shrub,
originally from Canada, five or six feet high, and blows, in June
and August, a pinkish violet-coloured flower. Propagated by
suckers. It likes a moist, shaded situation. This plant is also
called the /lowering Raspberry.
BREAD-TREE. — Lat. Mella Azedarach. A green-house
shrub of Asia, which grows ten or twelve feet high, and blows
a white flower tinted with purple, in July. Propagated by
sowing the seed, as soon as ripe, in the open earth ; but, in a
place sheltered from the frost. Orange-tree earth suits it best.
BROOM— See Genista.
BUCK-THORN, the common. — Lat. Rhamnus Alaternus. A
hardy shrub from the south of Europe, eight or ten feet high.
Blows a greenish yellow flower in April and May, and bears a red
berry. Propngated by seed, grafts, and layers. Not particular
as to soil, but should be in a sheltered situation. There are two
varieties of this plant, the common, and the jagged-leaved, and
they are very fit for shrubberies.
BOX-TREE. — Lat. Biiarns sempervirens. There are two
varieties common to us, the Tree and the Dwarf Box. The
former will grow in some places as high as twenty feet ; blow in
April a little pale yellow flower. Propagate by slips, cuttings,
layers, which root quickly. The dwarf 'is excellent as an edging,
and the tree excellent in evergreen shrubberies, where it will bear
being planted in the shade or under the drip of higher trees.
CANDLE-BERRY MYRTLE. — Lat. Myrica gale. A
hardy shrub, common in the forest of Rambouillet, in France,
four feet in height, and has a small red blossom, which appears
in May and June. Propagated by sowing, or by dividing the
roots. Heath mould suits it best. — Candi/e-berry Myrtle,
common American. — Lat. M. cerifera. A hardy shrub of North
America, four or five feet high, and blows in May. The fruit is
small, and covered with a white dust. Propagated bv suckers,
or by seed sowed in pots.
CAPER BUSH. — Lat. Capparis spinosa. A climber, ori-
ginally of Provence and the environs of De Grasse and Toulon.
It grows three or four feet high, and blows white flowers in abund-
238 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
ance in May and June. Propagated by seed or by layers, but, as
it is tender, the sure way to make layers is to cover the stump
with earth, and then the shoots which come immediately from it
take root easily. It is a proper green-house plant.
CAMELLIA. — Lat. C. Japonica. A very beautiful ever-
green green-house shrub, which blows in February and March,
flowers double, semi-double, and single ; and there are the red,
red-and-white, pure white, and the blush, with various others that
have been procured by art. This plant, though strictly speaking
a green-house plant, may be brought to grow and blow in the
open ground, if planted under a southern wall, and sheltered in
the winter by mats or other covering. It likes a good rich soil,
though it is the practice of the great florists to grow it in a mix-
ture of peat and good garden mould, to which some add a small
proportion of sand. It is not difficult of propagation either by
cuttings, layers, or by grafting : if by cuttings, take off, in Au-
gust, ripened shoots of the preceding year's growth, to which you
will let there be three buds. Plant a dozen or so in a pot of six
or eight inches diameter filled with sand or sandy loam. Keep
the pot under a frame or a hand-glass without bottom heat, and
shade it from a powerful sun. In the spring, you will find them
pushing forth j at least, all such as have struck. Give them water
plentifully when they are in a growing state, and sprinkle their
leaves also ; and, in the fall, they will be fit to pot off, when you
should plant them singly in good-sized pots well drained by plac-
ing potsherds at the bottom. By layers, proceed as is recom-
mended in Chap. VI., and graft in the manner recommended in
that Chapter also, only it is usual to omit cutting a tongue in the
stock and the scion as there recommended, because it is supposed
to weaken both more than they can bear ; but the greater atten-
tion is requisite in the tying, so that the barks of the stock and
the scion may not, in the operation of tying, be removed from the
point where you have placed them. I will only repeat, that, when
growing, and when in flower, this plant requires to be plentifully
watered ; and that the broiling mid-day sun of summer it never
likes.
CATALPA. — Lat. Bignonia Catalpa. This is a shrub or
tree rising to the height of thirty or forty feet ; and it is sufficiently
hardy for almost any part of the south of England. Its flowers,
which come like those of the horse chesnut, but not until August,
VII.] I 1ST OF SHRUBS. 2.39
are far more beautiful, and they are pendulous instead of being
erect. In everv thing else, this tree is the reverse of the horse-
chesnut. Its leaf is very large, of a singularly bright green, which
it preserves wholly unfaded through the hottest summers, and
until the coming of the frost. Catalpas should not he planted in
the shade. In very cold and wet summers they do not blow in
England ; they blow, however, five times, perhaps, out of six ; and,
if they never blowed at all, they ought to be cultivated for the
beauty of the leaf. It is a tree of great durability, as well in tree
as in timber. They may be raised from layers ; but with much
less trouble from seeds, which can, at all times, easily be had from
America, which come up the first year, and the plant attains a
considerable height even during the first summer.
CEDAR.— See Juniper.
CHERRY, the BIRD. — Lat. Prumts Padus. A very
handsome shrub, growing to the height of six or eight feet, and
blowing in May, abundance of white flowers ; these become fruit,
some red and some black. It is a native of England, and is pro-
pagated either by seeds, suckers, or grafting on the common
cherry; and it is not nice as to soil. Doublk-flowering
Cherry — Lat. Cerasus flore pleno, is another species of cherry.
It produces a beautiful double flower in April, not so abundant as
that of the former kind, but much handsomer ; and the plant is
not so tall. Propagation and cultivation the same. — Dwarf
American Cherry. — Lat. Pmnus pumila. From North America.
A dwarf shrub, not more than three or four feet high, blowing
small white flowers in April and May upon remarkably slender
branches. Propagate in the same manner as for the two last;
and give any soil or situation. These, according to their respective
sizes, are very desirable in the shrubbery and on the lawn, and
they are so handsome and so easy of cultivation, that no excuse
can well be found for not having them.
CISTUS, or ROCK-ROSE, the laurel-leaved. — lat. C.
laurifolius. A hardy shrub from the south of France and from
Spain, about six feet high, and blows a large white flower in
June and Julv. Gum Cistus. — Lat. C. Laduniferus. A
hardy and very beautiful shrub, about six or eight feet high, and
blows in June and July, a beautiful large white flower, with violet
spots in the inside. Propagated by cuttings taken in the summer,
which take root in about six weeks, if well-ripened young wood be
240 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [cHAP.
chosen for the purpose, and put under a hand-glass, and not
crowded together too much. Cistus, the white-leaved. — Lat.
C. Albidus. A shrub of the south of Europe : is three or four
feet high, and blows a purplish flower in June and July. It will
sometimes live in the open ground, but it is best to keep some plants
in a house. Propagated by sowing the seed in April, in pots in a
hot-bed ; and when the young plants have five or six leaves, they
must be planted, separately, in very small pots, and put in the
shade, or in a shaded bed, to strike. Also propagated by cuttings
put under a common hand-glass in summer. This family of
plants, all of which are beautiful, has been divided by the bota-
nists, a numerous class now going by the name of Helianthemwn.
All of them great blowers and extremely handsome. They do
well in pots, and also on rock-work: in short, nothing is hand-
somer than a selection of these shrubs.
CLEMATIS, or VIRGIN'S BOWER— Lat. Clematis viti-
cella. A hardy plant, common enough in gardens : it is a climber,
and is suited to bowers and trellis-work, or for other conspi-
cuous places. Blows a bluish purple flower in July and August,
and is easily propagated by layers, or from the seed, which ripens
in abundance, or by parting roots. Any soil will suit it. See also
Hungarian climber.
COBEA, climbiny. — Lat. Cobcea Scandcns. A green-house
climber, originally from Mexico. Its branches will grow thirty
or forty yards in length, and it blows, in August and Septem-
ber, a large and exceedingly handsome flower, which is at first
of a pale yellow, but afterwards violet. It is, although a green-
house plant, as hardy as the passion flower, and, like that plant,
will run over a great extent of wall in one summer, blowing
abundance of its magnificent flowers, and ripening seeds in a pod
of the size of a walnut ; then, if not very well protected from frost,
it will die down. But it is so easily procured either from seeds,
or cuttings, that no one need be long at a loss, if his plant even
perish during the winter. In green-houses of small extent, it
almost prevents your having anything else, so much room will it
occupy in a short time; therefore it is generally seen in the larger
conservatories, where it makes a great show for two months.
CORIARIA, or MYRTLE-LEAVED SUMACH.— Lat. C.
Myrtifolia. A hardy shrub from the south of Europe, that blows
in April. Propagated by suckers, and also by seed.
VII.] LIST OF SHRUBS. 2-1 1
CURRANT (the golden). — Lat. Ribes aureuni. A little
slnul), very much resembling the black-currant in wood and in
feaf, but blowing in April a handsome bunch of rich red flowers,
which bang down in the form of a bunch of red currants. Quite
hardy, and increased by layers or cuttings.
CYPRESS-TREE. — Lat. Cupressus Sempervirens. — A hardy
shrub from the Levant; grows fifteen or twenty feet high, and
blows a yellow blossom in May. The wood is hard, and of a red
colour, with a very sweet scent.
CYTISUS, or LABURNUM.— Lat. C. Laburnum. A hardy
and handsome tree, originally from the Alps, twenty or thirty
feet high, and blows a yellow flower in May and June.
Cytisus, common. — Lat. C. Sessilifolius. A hardy shrub of
Provence, twelve feet high, blows a yellow flower in May and
June. Hairy Cytisus. — Lat. C. hirsutus. A hardy shrub
of the southern parts of Europe, smaller than the common
cytisus, and blows a yellow flower in June. All the three sorts
propagated by sowing the seeds in pots or in flower-beds, where
they must remain until the following spring, when they must be
put in a nursery. They grow well almost everywhere, producing
amazing quantities of blossom and of seed. They require no
particular management, and are proper for the inner parts of
shrubberies. As they produce their flowers from spurs, which come
all along the old wood, prune no more than is necessary to neigh-
bouring trees or other things, and cut out dead wood.
DAPHNE (Cneorum). — A handsome little evergreen from
Switzerland. Blows a pretty bunch of small purple flowers in
April and May. Is hardy, and propagated by grafting; but it is
not fit for much but the fronts of borders, or for rock-work.
DOGWOOD, or CORNELIAN CHERRY. — Lat. Comus
Mascula. A hardy shrub from Austria, fifteen or twenty feet
high, and blows a yellow flower in February. Propagated bv
suckers, which are taken and planted early in the autumn.
Dogwood, American. — Lat. C. Florida. An equally hardy
plant from North America, but it there sometimes rises to the
height of forty or fifty feet. Grows at the edges of woods, and
blows large white and pink flowers at the ends of its branches in
May and June. Propagated from seeds ; and but little known
in England.
DIERVILLA.— See Honeysuckle.
R
242 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
DIOTIS SHRUBBY.— Lat. D. candidissima. A hardy shrub
from Siberia, eight or nine inches high, and blows a yellow
flower in August. Propagated by layers, and cuttings will do
under a hand-glass. Likes a stony soil.
FONTANESIA, phillyrea-leaved. — Lat. F. phillyreoides. A
hardy shrub from Syria, ten or twelve feet high, and blows a
white flower in May. Good to put against walls, for the purpose
of hiding them. Propagated by suckers, cuttings, and also by
seed. Does well in almost any soil, if it be not too moist.
FUCHSIA. — Lat. F. coccinea. A pretty tender shrub, a
native of Chili, where it grows to the height of three or four
feet. Its young branches are delicate, and of a deep scarlet
colour, as are the tips of its leaves ; and, throughout the summer
months, it blows numerous little pendant flowers, the upper part
scarlet, and, towards the lower, becoming a bluish violet. The
young shoots strike freely under a hand-glass, which should fre-
quently be tilted up a little to give air. A mixture of good loam
and peat suits them well. The green-house is the proper place
for this plant, though in the summer it will do well turned out
into the open ground, and will even live through a moderate
winter in England, if cut down and carefully covered with litter ;
but it is generally potted in the beginning of October, and then,
having taken root, is placed in its winter quarters.
FURZE. — Lat. Ulex. The double furze is a very hand-
some shrub, sweet-smelling, an abundant flowercr and evergreen.
It should be had in every shrubbery, and it does not disgrace a
border even. Flowers in May. Propagated by sowing.
GENISTA, or BROOM. — Lat. Genista tinctoria. The
common yellow broom every one knows ; and the effect of it in a
shrubbery need scarcely be described. There is a white sort,
Genista alba, which is very handsome. These blow in May ; and
are propagated without any difficulty from the seed. Sow them
in rows not far apart, in the spring, and keep them cleanly weeded
when they are small. The white sort is remarkably handsome
for a full month in the spring of the year, and should, by all
means, form apart of the shrubbery, though it is rather too tall to
be immediately in the front row.
GERANIUM. — Lat. Geranium. The botanists have found
geraniums in almost all countries, some herbaceous, some woody,
some fibrous-rooted, and some tuberous-rooted ; but I shall
VII.] LIST OF SHRUBS. 243
leave all the rest unmentioncd, that I may have the more room to
speak of the two or three sorts that I deem the most ornamental,
and, in every way, the best deserving mention in this work. The
English florists have become celebrated for their collections of a
vast variety of green-house geraniums, which equal, or surpass, in
number, that of the auricula, and which certainly does include a
set of flowers of unrivalled beauty. The plant is, among English
florists, what the tulip and hyacinth are with the Dutch florists:
they spare no expense in erecting propagation-houses and con-
servatories for it, they have shows of it, they give a high-sounding
name to every new variety, and whole works have been published
laudatory of its beauties. The common scarlet and the ivy-leaved
are the only two sorts that I shall particularize. The first is well
known in most gardens. It is a woody plant, though its wood is
of a succulent nature, and is not a match for our winters in the
open air; it grows to the height of four feet or more in good
ground in England, and much higher at the Cape of Good Hope or
in the south of Africa, where it is indigenous. It has large downy
soft leaves of a beautiful luxuriant green, placed at the end of
foot-stalks, and it bears its flowers in scarlet bouquets, or bunches,
at the end of foot-stalks longer than those of the leaves. It will
spread to a great width when planted out, and in a good warm
summer. I have had it at Kensington full five feet over, and
covered with blossoms from the middle of June to the middle of
October. It is said to like a Vujht rich mould best. Rich mould
it does like, but I never found it do otherwise than well in the
deepest and stiffest garden mould that I have occupied, and I have
occupied some of the stiffest that I ever saw in mv life. In its
native country it likes sand, because it has nothing else ; but I look
upon it that a geranium in African sand under an English sun,
would become a very poor thing indeed. Gravel suits it ill, as do
also the extremes of chalk or clay, but a good depth of mould over
a bed of either of these latter, with well-rotted manure and
good tillage, will make a very fine geranium, and will keep
ir, in blossom four months of the year. As it is infallibly
killed by hard frost, unless most cautiously covered over with
litter and mats, the way to perpetuate it that I generally fol-
low is this: in July take some cuttings of young wood that is
ripening, and put them in separate pots of nice mould, observing
to have two joints below the earth and one above it. Then
ii 2
244 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
plunge the pots up to their rims in a hot-bed of moderate heat.
Shade them with mats, but do not give air for a day or two, and
then give a little water and air, but let the water have stood in the
watering-pot exposed to the sun for three or four hours before you
give it. When you find they have struck and are growing well,
re-pot them and place them in the open air, but in a shady situ-
ation, with hoops over them that you may lay mats on. Put some
siftings of cinders on the ground before you place the pots on it,
and this will keep out worms. In this place, let them recover the
re-potting, which they will soon do, and then they are nice, fresh,
and convenient-sized plants for the green-house, where they will
blow in the winter, and in the following May will be your supply
for the open ground. Another way of propagating is by seed, of
which you may generally gather abundance in July, and, if sowed
directly in good earth and in large pots plunged in a hot-bed, will
come up directly, and, being potted out singly in three weeks from
the time of coming out, and again carefully managed (though not
forced), will be fine strong plants by the end of autumn, and
handsomer in form than those raised from cuttings. Put them
into the green-house in September, or earlier if the weather be
cold, and observe that you cannot give too much air, nor keep the
place too free from damp ; want of air and dampness being the
two main destroyers of these plants. If their leaves turn yellow,
be sure that there is not air enough; and, if their joints become
mouldy, look to dampness as the cause. Prune off dead branches,
and always keep the plant bushy, for otherwise it becomes a
long horny thing, with a small head and few flowers. The
ivy-leaved geranium is a pretty little trailing plant, with thin
branches of a brownish green hue, and little smooth rather fleshy
leaves of a dark green with a broad rim of black near the outside
edge, and of the shape of an ivy-leaf. It blows clusters of
pinkish flowers throughout the summer months ; is tender, but
does well in the green-house, or in any parlour window of good
aspect. Propagate it by cuttings as you do the last-mentioned ;
and train it up a little ladder, getting wider and wider as it gets
high ; prune only dead branches. A mixture of vegetable manure
and good mould suits it well.
GORDONIA. — Lat. Gordonia Pubescens. To which Bkr-
traMj the discoverer of it, gave the name of Franklinia. This
shrub is a native of the southern States of America. Its flowers
VII.] LIS! OF SHRUHS. 245
arc magnificent, and it grows to a height of from ten to twenty
feet. It is deeiduous ; and the seeds of it must he had from
America ; for though it would blow here very well, it would not
ripen its seed. It has long stood the climate of Pennsylvania,
where the winters are much more severe than they are in
England.
GEORGIA BARK.— Lat, Pinkneya Pubens. This is a sin-
gularly heautiful shrub, both as to leaf and flower; grows to the
height of twenty feet ; but must be tender, because it appears to
he confined to the southern States of America. It was discovered
by M. Michaux in 1791, who gave it the name of Pjnknkya, in
honour of Mr. Pjnkney, who had been ambassador to France.
GUELDER-ROSE. — Lat. Viburnum opulus. A shrub common
in most parts of Europe, is ten or twelve feet high, and blows a large
round white flower like a ball of snow, in May and June. Pro-
pagated by seed, but most frequently by layers or suckers. Not at
all particular as to soil.
HARE'S-EAR, shrubby. — Lat. Bupleurum fruticosum. A
rather tender evergreen shrub of Provence, and other parts of
the south of France. It grows to the height of five or six feet,
and blows a yellow flower in July or August. It is very prettv,
and suited to winter shrubberies ; but requires to be placed so
that it may not push out too much in the summer. Propagated
by sowing the seeds in light earth as soon as they are ripe, or by
cuttings under a hand-glass.
HELIANTHEMUM. See Cistus.
HONEY-SUCKLE. — Lat. Lonicera caprifolia. A trailing
shrub of England, France, and other parts of Europe, which
grows against walls or trees, and blows a reddish flower from the
end of the spring to the middle of summer. Any soil suits it, but
it does best exposed to the sun. Propagated by layers made at
any time of the year, or by cuttings put in in the spring and autumn.
Honey-suckle, Red-berried. — Lat. L. ulpigena. A
climbing shrub, three or four feet high, from Switzerland. Blows
a red flower in May. Honey-suckle, the Pyrenean.— Lat.
L. Pyrenaica. A climbing shrub of the Pyrenees, three or four
feet high, and blows, in May, a flower that is red on one side.
Honey-suckle, the Trumpet — Lat. L. sempervirens. A
climbing evergreen shrub from North America. Blows, from
May till August, a flower which is red on the .outside, and
SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
yellow in the inside. Propagated by layers and cuttings. Any soil
suits it. Honey-suckle, the Tartarian. — Lat. L. Tartarica.
A shrub, originally from Russia and Tartary, which grows to
the height of five or six feet, and blows in March and April.
As the seeds are one or two years in coming up, it is best
to propagate this plant by layers, which may be planted where
they are to stav, at the end of eighteen months. They do not
like the spring frosts, but hard winters do not hurt them. Any
soil suits them, but it is advisable to put them in a good situation
and in a warm soil. Honey-suckle, Yelloiv-ftoicered. — Lat.
Diervilla lutea. A hardy shrub from North America, two or
three feet high, and blows a yellow flower in June. Propagated
by suckers. Any soil or situation agrees with it.
HAWTHORN, White. — Lat. Mespilus Oxyacantha. A
shrub common in manv parts of Europe, which blows a white
flower in May ; but enough of it has been said in paragraph 32.
But, besides being a most useful plant for the purpose of
making hedges, it is also exceedingly ornamental, having foliage,
flower, and fragrance, to delight our senses early in the month
of May. Propagated from the seeds, which ripen plentifully.
Gather them in the fall ; keep them all the winter in sand, and
sow in the spring ; and in two years your plants will be fit to go
out. There are also the Glastonbury thorn and the Cashiobury
thorn, two exceedingly handsome flowering trees, for they be-
come trees, in fact, where they are suffered to grow their full size.
HUNGARIAN CLIMBER.— Lat. Clematis integrifolia.
Blows abundance of blue flowers from June to August, and may
easily be made a standard shrub by being tied up to a stake of
the height that you wish it to grow. Hardy and very handsome.
Propagate by cuttings or layers.
INDIGO, shrubby bastard. — Lat. Amorpha fruticosa. A
rather hardy shrub of Carolina, ten feet high, and blows a
violet-coloured flower in June and July. Propagated from seed
and from cuttings. Any soil will do for it, but it prefers a light
and gravelly soil, and a warm situation. In severe winters it
requires sheltering
IVY. — Lat. Hedera helix. A hardy climber, common in
Europe ; blows a whitish flower in September and October, and
is useful to cover old walls. — H. Canadensis, or Irish Ivy, is the
best sort : both are easily propagated by layers or cuttings.
VII
.] LIST OF SIIRUHS. 217
JASMIN, common Ibhite. — Lat. Jasmimnn officinale; A slim!)
of the coast of Malabar, which throws ten tit twelve feet high, and
Mows a sweet-scented white flower from July to October. Pro-
pagated by suckers. Any soil suits it, but it likes a light and
warm one best. It is generally trained against walls or trellis-
work, and will there grow to a great height. Jasmin, yellow
Italian. — Lat. /. humile. A shrub which grows four or five feet
high, and blows a yellow flower from July to September. Culti-
vated like the white jasmin.
JUNIPER-TREE, or red cedar. — Lat. Juniperus Virginiana.
An evergreen tree from North America that blows in May, and
produces a little blue berry. It grows to forty or fifty feet high,
and delights in peat soil ; but is not very nice as to that. >
Phoenician Cedar. — Lat. J. Phamicea. An evergreen shrub
from the south of Europe, which blows in April, and produces
a yellow berry. It grows to about six or eight feet high.
Jumper, the common. — hat. J. communis. A shrub common in
England ; and bears a fruit of a blackish blue colour. Propa-
gated by cuttings and suckers, and also by seed, which comes
up the second year, and should be sown in garden mould mixed
with sand. The two foregoing should be propagated in the
same manner.
KCELREUTERIA, panicled. — Lat. K. paniculata. A hardy
shrub, ten or twelve feet high, originally from China, which
blows a yellow flower in August. Propagated by seed, and re-
quires great care for the first two or three years. It is also ob-
tained by cuttings planted in February in pots, and put into a
hot-bed of moderate heat. They take root in about a month,
and should be separated in the autumn.
Laburnum.— See cynm.
LAUREL, or sweet-bay. — Lat. Laurus nohilis. That common
evergreen which we see now in all parts of England forming the
underwood to high shrubberies, and the fore-ground of low ones.
It is a native of Italy, but is hardy enough to stand the winters of
the southern parts of England well, though in the North, and par-
ticularly if on high and exposed situations, it will not outlive a
very severe winter. It blows a small white flower in May ; and
is easily propagated by layers. It grows to ten or twelve feet
high, when in a sheltered situation, and is more particular as to
this matter than as to soil. Under the tall Scotch firs in Windsor
248 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
great Park, immediately adjoining that barrenest of all spots
Bagshot Heath, there are laurels of eight-and-twenty feet high !
I never saw them anywhere so large as there. Portugal
Laurel. — Lat. Prunus Lucitanica. Another evergreen, and
common enough in England. It is from Portugal, and blows a
white flower in June and July, and then produces blackish berries,
thinly disposed on its flower-stalk. It will grow to twelve or fif-
teen feet high (and much higher when raised from seed), forming
a round head like an apple-tree, and having a no inconsiderable,
though very short, trunk. Propagated from layers or seed ; the
seed should be sown as soon as ripe in beds. Any soil almost
will suit it, but it likes a good deep one best. Laurel, Alex-
andrian.— Lat. Ruscus racernosus. An evergreen shrub from
the south of Europe, which is about two feet high, blows, in June
and Julv, a flower of a yellowish colour, and the fruit is a beauti-
ful red berry. It is propagated by seed, but most commonly by
separating the roots (which should be strong) in February or
March. It likes a sandy earth, and will thrive in a shady situa-
tion.
LIME TREE. — Lat. Tilia Europcea. A hardy tree of England,
France, Sweden, and other parts of Europe. It would grow to a
good height, except that it is generally kept short in gardens,
that the branches may grow thicker and form a shade. Blows a
vellow flower in May and June. Propagated by cuttings, and
sometimes by seed, and likes a soil of good depth.
LILAC, common. — Lat. Syringa vulgaris. A shrub from Con-
stantinople, about twelve feet in height, blows, in May, a violet-
coloured, or white flower.— — Lilac, Chinese. — Lat. .S. CMnensis.
A shrub originally from China. Has a violet-coloured flower.
Not so tall as the foregoing. Lilac, Persian. — Lat. S.Per-
sica. A shrub from Persia, about eight feet high, and, in
Mav, blows a light purple flower. They are all to be propagated
by shoots, suckers, or layers, and they like good deep soil.
They are very proper for shrubberies, but the first sort in parti-
cular is too tall for the fronts of them.
LOCUST. — Lat. Pseudo-acacia. A timber-tree of North
America, which I mention here on account of its being one of the
most ornamental of our tall shrubbery trees, both owing to its
handsome foliage, and its handsome and abundant clusters of
white flowers. It is propagated from seed, which is sometimes
VII.] LIST OF SHRUBS. 12 tO
ripened in this country. The plants come up the first year, and,
in the fall of the same year, may he planted out where they are
to stand ; though it is certainly hetter to give them one year in
the nursery, cutting them down to within a couple or three inches
of the ground every time you transplant. Their only enemies are
hares and rabbits, and, if planted out young in a place where these
vermin abound, expect not to preserve your locust trees.
LOBLOLLY BAY. — Lat. Gordonia Lasyanthus. This is an
evergreen which rises to the height of fifty or sixty feet in America,
bearing a white flower, in size and shape very much like that of
the dwarf or round tulip. I have never seen one of them in Eng-
land, and I suppose that it is about as tender as the Magnolia
Grandiflora, as it comes from the southern States of America.
MAGNOLIA. — There are seven sorts of Magnolias, all of
which come from North America. They are called, first, The
Magnolia Grandiflora, some of which have white and some pur-
plish flowers. It grows in the southern States of North America
to the common height of our elms. It is rather too tender for
exposed situations in England, and is generally placed against a
house or a high wall facing the south. I have, however, seen
them standard trees, and of considerable height. Its flowers are
magnificent, indeed. They are shaped somewhat like the flower
of the tulip, and burst open like the tulip. The petals are
from three to four inches long, and the flower sometimes,
when quite open, forms a circumference approaching to a foot.
From the centre of the petals there arises a flower-pod some-
what in the shape of a pine-apple, which opens when the seed
is nearly ripe, and the seeds come out from the sides of this
seed-pod and hang suspended from it by a little sort of
string. This magnolia is an evergreen, and has long, large,
and beautiful leaves. All magnolias may be raised from the
seed ; but that seed must be brought from the country of which
the tree is a native. The seed comes up the first year in the
natural ground, but the seedlings must be carefully protected
during the winter for a year or two.— Second, Magnolia tripe-
tella, which the Americans call umbrella-tree. This tree is
hardy, and will grow as a standard in any tolerable situation in
England. The leaves of this tree are some of the largest and
finest in the world. I have some now, each of which is about
twenty-one inches long, and nine inches wide in the middle. The
250 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
flower is white and has three petals, each of very great length
and breadth. This tree loses its leaves in the fall. — Third, Mag-
nolia acuminata. This is another variety. It is hardy, and will
very well endure the climate of England. — Fourth, Magnolia cor-
data. This has rather a round leaf, and has a yellow blossom.
It is about as tender as the Magnolia Grandiflora. — Fifth, Mag-
nolia auriculata. — Sixth, Magnolia macrophylla. Both varieties
of the great magnolia or magnolia grandiflora, and both about as
tender as that. — Seventh, Magnolia glauca, or small Magnolia.
This is perfectly hardy, grows in Canada, and in all parts of the
United States of America, and is a shrub, take it altogether, ex-
celling every other. It is called the glauca on account of the
bluish colour on the under side of its leaves, which are of a bright
green on the upper side, and have the solidity and characteristics
of the laurel, though the tree is deciduous. It rises to the height
of ten or twelve feet ; bears a flower of the shape of the dwarf or
round tulip. It is about the size also of the flower of the dwarf
tulip, opens by slow degrees, and emits an odour the most de-
lightful that can be conceived ; far exceeding that of the rose ;
in strength equal to that of the jonquil or the tuberose, and far
more delightful. In the country where this tree grows, a clump
of them scents a whole wood. The tree continues to bear flowers
for a long while, two months at the least ; for the flowers suc-
ceed each other, some being mere buds, while the petals of others
are dropping. This tree will grow in almost any ground : as it
is generally found near swamps in America, I thought that it re-
quired a low situation in England, until I saw upon a sand-hill
partly covered with heath, in a garden which belonged to Sir
Herbkrt Taylor near St. Ann's Hill, one of these magnolias in
as vigorous a state and as full bloom as I ever saw one in America.
This shrub, like the great magnolia, is raised from layers in Eng-
land ; but if it were raised from seed, as it very easily might be, the
plants would be beyond all measure finer than they generally are.
None of the other magnolias are nearly so odoriferous as this; all
but this are somewhat tender : this might be in every shrubbery
in England with the greatest ease ; and I cannot help expressing
my hope that it may one day become as common as the lilac. —
M. Purpurea is from China. A very handsome shrub, blowing
a pale purple flower early in April. It is hardy, and is propagated
by layers.
vir.] I fsT OF SCRUBS. 251
MEZEREOX. — Lat. tfaphne MezefeUm. A shrub of the
most mountainous parts of France, three feet hign, and blows a
rose-coloured, or white flower, at the end of the winter. Propa-
gated by cuttings or by seed sown in open earth, in drills or
otherwise, hut covered two inches thick. It likes a light soil, and
a rather shady situation. A very nice plant for the front part
of shrubberies.
MYRTLB, common. — Lat Myrtus communis. A shrub
originally from Asia, Africa, Italy, and the south of France. Blows
a white flower during the summer, and the fruit ripens in the
autumn. It will grow five or six feet high in pots or against
walls, but if not well protected, will not outlive the winter ; and
it requires a good aspect to make it blossom. It likes a good
loamy soil, and I have had it blossom abundantly in such, and in
a south-western aspect, in Hampshire. Propagate it by cuttings
of young wood placed under a hand-glass, or by layers.
OLEASTER, narrow -leaved. — Lat. Eleaegnus angiistifolia.
A hardy tree of Provence, about thirty feet high, and bears a
yellow blossom in June and July. Its foliage produces an
agreeable effect in parks and large gardens, for which only it is
proper. Propagated by layers or by cuttings, but the cuttings
require sheltering in the winter. Any soil suits it, but it likes
best a light, sandy, and rather warm soil.
OLIVE-TREE.— Lat. Olea Europtsa. A green-house shrub
from the south of Europe. Blows a white fragrant flower in May.
Propagated by parting the roots, by suckers, and by cuttings.
They are often grafted on the common privet.
OLEANDER, or Rose-bay. — Lat. Nerium Grandiflorum. A
beautiful evergreen green-house shrub, from the south of Europe.
Grows six or eight feet high, and from July to September,
blows large double pink flowers of the most agreeable and most
delicate appearance. It requires a good but rather light soil,
water and heat when putting forth its flowers, but little water
and no damp at other times, as these cause a mould to come
round its joints. It is a handsome plant in form, and should be
shifted into fresh pots every two or three years. Propagate it
by cuttings of the young and just-ripened wood, planted under a
hand-glass, and with a little heat under, or by layers which root
freely. It is one of the very handsomest of green-house shrubs.
252 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
Common Red — Lat. N. Oleander — is another species, not
so tender, and not by any means so handsome. It will grow and
blow in the open ground, but must be covered carefully in the
winter. Propagation the same as for the former.
ORANGE-TREE. — Lat. Citrus. A green-house evergreen
shrub of the East Indies and south of Europe, which grows
fifteen feet high, and blows a white fragrant flower in June and
July. Propagated by sowing in March or April in pots put in a
bed of moderate heat, or more easily, by procuring from Italy or
France, roots already grafted and pretty strong. These plants
require a rich mould, and should be manured with rotten dung.
In the north of France, they are generally kept in large square
boxes of three or four feet diameter, and these boxes being on
wheels, they are easily moved in and out of the conservatory. The
sides of the boxes are so constructed as to open like doors, and
thus,- every year, one side is opened and looked at, and the roots
are primed, or fresh mould introduced, as the cultivator thinks fit.
PAENY, the Tree. — Lat. Paeonia Moutan. A very handsome
plant, growing three or four feet high. Should be in the front part
of the shrubbery, or, if possible, on the edge of grass, where all the
kind look handsomest. Blows fine large rose-coloured flowers in
April and May. Likes a rich soil, is hardy, and is not very diffi-
cult to propagate by layers, or by cuttings of well-ripened last
year's wood.
PAP AW — Lat. Anona triloba — is a native of Canada, and,
therefore, hardy. It bears a beautiful purple flower in the month
of July, and rises to the height of twenty or thirty feet. Being
hardv, it would be certainly worth the trouble of obtaining the
seeds from America.
PERIWINKLE, large. — Lat. Vinca major. A hardy trailing
plant from the south of Europe, grows two feet high, blowing a
pretty blue flower during the whole of the summer. Propagated
by suckers which come in abundance ; likes any soil, and a shady
situation.
POME-GRANATE — Lat. Punica granatum. A shrub be-
longing to Italy, Spain, and the south of France. About twelve
or fifteen feet high, and blows in July and September a beautiful
red flower. Propagated by suckers and layers, and cuttings,
which root easily. There arc two sorts which have white flowers,
VII.] LIST OF SHRUBS. 2."i.3
mic double, tho other single. Require the green-house in Eng-
land, and a little heat too, to make them blow strongly. Good
oamv soil.
PASSION-FLOWER.— Lat. Passifbra aeruUa. A climbing
plant, originally from South America; is about forty feet high,
and, from July till October, blows a flower, the exterior of which
is a pale green, and the interior a fine purple. Its branches will
extend over a large surface of wall in one summer, and, if not
well looked to and nailed up, will get into great confusion and
become rather ugly than otherwise. It may be trained up piltars,
over bowers, or it may be let in at parlour windows. It is, as far
as its branches go, tender, but will live throughout the winter if
matted over with care, and, if not matted, will often only die
down to the root, and spring up again at the approach of summer.
Propagate by striking cuttings in the autumn under a hand-glass
or On a gentle heat. Mixture of garden mould and peat suits the
passion-flower well ; but is not very nice as to soil. — P. Alata.
The winged passion-flower is a beautiful green-house climber,
throwing out rich bunches of red flowers from the month of April
■ptember.
PISTACHIO-TREE. -- Lat. Pistachio, vera. A tree from
Syria, twenty or thirty feet high, and blows in April and May.
Turpentine-tree. — Lat. P. terebinthus. A hardy shrub
from Barbary, where it attains the height of an elm. Blows
in April and May. Mastick-tree. — Lat. P. lenticus. A
green-house shrub from the south of Europe, where it is gene-
rally about ten or twelve feet high, and blows in April. These
all bear berries. Propagated by seed, sown in pots and put into
a hot-bed, in the spring. Layers can also be made of them,
but they are never so strong. They require a warm situation,
and, in the winter, the roots should be covered with litter.
PRIVET, common. — Lat. Ligustrum vulgare. A hardy shrub,
common in England ; six or eight feet high, and blows a pretty
odoriferous white flower in June and July. Propagated by cut-
tings, lavers, and seed. Does well in any soil or situation. It is
generally used for low hedges in gardens and pleasure-grounds,
where it is suitable; and, when white and red roses are planted
with it, makes as pretty a fence as can be conceived.
PSORALEA, bituminous. — Lat. P. bituminosa. A green-
house shrub of the south of France, about three feet in height,
254 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
and blows a blue flower during the whole of the summer. It
will sow itself when in a strong earth, and likes a warm but airy
situation.
PYRUS SPECTABILIS— Double-flowering apple, is a beautiful
shrub. It is a double-blossoming apple, indeed, which every one
can imagine the beauties of; but it is not so common in shrubbe-
ries as it ought to be. Propagated by grafting upon the common
crab, or upon common apple-stocks. Blows in April and May,
and is hardy.
REST-HARROW, the purple-flowered shrubby. — Lat. Ononis
fruticosa. A shrub of the Dauphine mountains, and fit for bor-
ders of spring shrubs. It grows two or three feet high, and blows
a red flower from June to October. Propagated by sowing the
seeds in beds of light earth, but the plants must be put in pots,
and sheltered from the frost for two years, when they will be
strong enough to stay in the open earth. Layers will root too.
RHODODENDRON. This is the Latin, and the only English
name of one of the handsomest shrubs that we have any know-
ledge of. Its native lands are cold ones, the Alps, Siberia, and
North America. It stands our climate, therefore, very well ; but
it is fondest of a peaty soil, and therefore should have some such
mixed with whatever other garden soil it is planted in. It will
grow and blow without this humouring, to be sure, but not so
well by any means as with it. The flower of this plant appears
in June, and lasts throughout the month ; it is not fragrant, but
its size, shades of variety, and bold structure, make up for this.
The plant is evergreen, grows freely, and to the height of many
feet, in soils that it likes. There are some now in the grounds of
the Rustic Cottage in Kew Gardens that are about sixteen feet
high. It grows in a very straggling form, however, and is a
mere shrub. It is propagated by layers, by seed, or by cut-
tings ; but most easily by the two former. The seed should be
sown early in the spring in broad-mouthed pots and in a Bandy
soil, very thinly covered and placed in a frame, upon a gentle
heat, and carefully shaded. Very little water should be given
before and after the plants come up; and when they have been
up about six weeks, they should lie very carefully potted out
singly, and again placed in a gentle heat, shaded and sparingly
watered. Cuttings from very young wood will thrive if put under
hand-glasses and excluded from the air a little time by the glasses
VII.] LIST OF SHRUBS. 12 ."» .">
being kept tight down over them. There is a new variety, called
the Tree- Rhododendron. It grows in the tree form, blows ;m
immense and superb flower, and is, when in full bloom, the most
beautiful sight of the kind that I ever saw. It has tin- stately
form of the tree, with the appendage of a large and most brilliant
flower ; but its hardiness has not, 1 believe, been yet tried.
ROSE. — Lat. Rosa. Any eulogy of the rose would be childish,
and it would not be much less childish to insert a catalogue of
roses of more than a thousand in number, from the lists of the
florists of France and England. The roses that might content
any man not a professed florist, are the following. 1st. Provence,
white and red. 2nd. Moss Provence, white and red. 3rd. Damask.
4th. Velvet. 5th. Striped. 6th. Maiden's blush. 7th. Monthly
roses, white and red. 8th. Yellow double and single. 9th.
Rose de Maux. 10th. Sweet Briar. 1 1th. Austrian briar (the
flower, the colour of that of a nasturtium). 12th. Chinese, or
ever-blowing. 13th. Multiflora, many-flowering. 14th. Lady
Banks. The three last may be easily raised from cuttings : all
the rest from layers or suckers. The Lady Banks is a rose
brought from China by Sir Joseph Banks, and given to the
King's gardens at Kew. It is a little white rose, and bears its
flowers in bunches, and yields to nothing, in point of odour, except
the Magnolia Glauca. The leaf is very delicate, and the tree has
no thorns, in which respect it differs, I believe, from every other
rose in the world. After all, perhaps, leaf, colour, size, every
thing taken into account, the Provence rose is still the finest, and
it ought to be in abundance in every shrubbery. To cause the
rose to continue to produce flowers for a long while, gather the
flowers close to the stem, cropping off the seed hip as soon as the
petals begin to drop, which, besides the other circumstance, will
prevent the ground from being littered by the flowers, which become
putrid in a short time. Roses may be budded on stocks of any vigorous
sort, and stocks may be raised from the seeds of the dog, or hedge,
rose. This is the way in which tall standard rose-trees are obtained.
The stocks should be managed in the same way as stocks for
fruit-trees. Roses never thrive in poor, and particularly in
shallow ground. They like cool, and somewhat stiff ground ;
and you always perceive the hedge roses the finest on the sides of
land which is too stiff to be arable land. If, therefore, the ground
of your shrubbery be of a very light nature, you ought to move it
256 shrubberies and flower-gardens. [chap.
deep for the roses, and to get something of the clayey or marly
kind to mix with it, it being quite useless to plant the shrub unless
it be made capable of bearing flowers, which it will not in a poor
hungry soil. Roses may be trained against houses, and especially
the Chinese rose. In this case, care should be taken to prune out
old wood occasionally, and to shorten the shoots so as to keep the
tree in bearing condition, if roses, as standards, are required to
be of considerable height, occasional pruning must take place to
keep the head in order, and to prevent one part from rambling
beyond another. All the roses but the Chinese bear upon wood
of the last year or some former year ; that is to say, there must be
wood of a year old or more for a little shoot to come out of to
bear the flowers. The height of your dwarf rose must depend
upon that of its surrounding neighbours : if they be low, as in a
flower- border or flower-garden, the roses must be so pruned down
in the winter as to leave no part of the shrub more than a foot
high, taking care to leave the strongest and best wood : out of
this wood come little shoots that bear the roses. A Chinese rose
will send out a long shoot from the ground in the spring, which
will bear flowers during the same year. If this rose stand in a
low border, it must be cut down to within a foot of the ground,
or it overtops every thing in a short time.
SAGE, Jerusalem. — Lac. Phlomis fruticosa. A hardy shrub of
Spain and Sicily, three or four feet high, and blows a yellow
flower in July, August, and September. Propagated by dividing
the roots, and by sowing in beds prepared for that purpose. Not
particular as to soil.
SEA-BUCKTHORN.— Lat. Hrpjmphae rhamoides. A large
hardy shrub from the borders cf the Mediterranean, and blows
in April. Propagated by layers made in black heath-mould. Any
soil suits it, but light soil is best.
SERVICE-TRUE, true. — Lat. Sorbus domestica. A tree
common in England, about fifty feet high, blows a white flower
early in the spring, and bears fruit which may be eaten. Propa-
gates itself in forests, and is obtained in gardens by seed, and by
grafting on the white-thorn. Mountain Ash. — Lat. S. aucu-
paria. A tree common in the north of Europe, not so high as the
preceding one, blows clusters of white flowers in May, and bears
clusters of beautiful red berries in the autumn. A most orna-
mental tree for large pleasure-grounds. Bastard Service-
vn.] i.isr ok ihrobs. 2'u
trie. — Lat. Sorbus hybrida. A tree common in the north of
Europe, and differing from the others in its leaves and flowers
only ; the former beiug downy, and the latter smaller. Propa-
gated from seed, and are obtained sooner by grafting on the
quince or thorn.
SCORPION SENNA. — Lat. Coronilla emerus. A shrub
originally from the south of France, three or four feet high,
bearing, in April and June, a yellow flower ; and, if dipt with the
scissors, will blow again in the middle of the summer. Propagated
by seeds or by suckers, or cuttings planted in the open ground
early in the autumn. A very pretty plant for the fronts of
shrubberies.
SNOWDROP-TREE, four-winged.— \jM. Halesia tetraptera.
A hardy tree of Carolina, twenty or thirty feet high, and blowing
a white flower in May. Propagated by seed and by layers, which
do not firmly take root until the third year. It likes a good soil,
and will grow freely.
SPINDLE-TREE, common. — Lat. Evonymus Europceus. A
hardy shrub twelve feet in height, and blows a whitish flower in
May. Common in England. Spindle Tree the ivarted. —
Lat. Evonymus verrucosus. A hardy shrub from Austria. In
May blows a flower of a brownish purple. These shrubs are pro-
pagated by their seed sown in light earth in the shade, or by
ripened cuttings struck in the open ground in autumn. Any soil
suits them ; and they suit large pleasure-grounds.
SPIR/EA, Hawthorn-leaved. — Lat. Spircea crenata. A hardy
shrub originally from Siberia, about three feet high, and blows a
white flower in June and July. Spir.ea, Willow-leaved. — Lat.
Spircea salicifolia. A hardy shrub from North America, about
six feet high, and blows a purplish red flower in July and August.
SpiRiEA, Germander-leaved. — Lat. Spircea chamcedrifolia. A
hardy shrub from Siberia that blows a white flower early in the
spring. SpwjExhypericumfrutex. — Lat. Spircea hypericifolia*
A hardy shrub, and blows a white flower. From America.
Sfir.ea, Scarlet. — Lat. Spircea tommentosa. A hardy shrub from
America, and blows a red flower. All these are propagated by
layers, slips, suckers, cuttings, and also by seed. Not particular
as to soil. Very desirable shrubs.
ST. PETER'S WORT.— Lat. Symphoria racemosa. A very
s
258 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
pretty dwarf shrub that comes into leaf more early in the spring
than any other that I know of, and has a leaf of singular beauty.
I raised, the year before last ( 1 SU/), great quantities from seed
got from America. The seed lay two years in the ground ; but
the plants grew surprisingly after they came up. It blows in
August a minute but prettv and pendent rose-coloured flower,
which is succeeded by a white berry about the size of a cherry,
and which hangs on till the winter. This contains the seed
wrapped up in a kind of frothy pulp. Quite hardy, and very
easily propagated from cuttings or by parting the roots, or by
suckers.
ST. JOHN'S WORT, large flowered.— hut. Hypericum caly-
cinum. A hardy perennial from the environs of Constantinople,
which blows a yellow flower from June to September. Propagated
from seed and by dividing the roots in March. Likes a warm
situation. Sr. John's Wort, hairy. — Lat. Hypericum
calycinum. A hardy plant common in Europe, growing three
feet high, and blowing a yellow flower in July and August. Pro-
pagates itself. Pretty for the fronts of shrubberies.
STRAWBERRY-TREE, red-berried, trail ing. —Lat. Arbutus
uva ursi. A hardy shrub, common in England. Blows, in March
and April, a white flower, and bears very pretty red fruit in June.
Propagated by seed, sown as soon as ripe, in pots, and exposed to
the south-east till it is up. When the plants are an inch high,
they should be planted in little pots till they are strong enough to
put into the open earth. They like heath mould and rather a
shady situation. Makes a good show on naked banks.
SUMACH, Venice. — Lat. Rhus continus. A hardy shrub be-
longing to Italy and Austria. It is about eight feet high, and
blows in July and August. Sumach, Virginian. — Lat. Rhus
typhinum. A hardy and large shrub from North America. Blows
a purplish flower in July, propagated by seed, cuttings, and
suckers. Likes a light soil with a good bottom. Must be shel-
tered from the high winds. Its chief property is the handsome
red colour of its leaves in the fall, and for this it is admitted to
the shrubberies and pleasure-gardens of Europe.
SYRINGA, common. — Lat. Philadelphus coronarius. A hardy
shrub of the southern parts of Europe, which grows from four
to ten feet high, and blows a white flower in June and July.
VII.] J.1ST OF SHRUB3. 259
Propagated by suckers or by dividing the roots in the autumn,
and any soil suits it. Its powerful odour is disliked by many,
but there are few shrubberies in which it has not a place.
'JAM \ RISK, French. — Lat. Tamarix Gallica. A hardy »h rub
of the south of Fiance, which grows to the height of twelve feet,
and blows a purplish white flower from May to October. Propa-
gated by cuttings made in February and put into rich and moist
earth, but they must not be transplanted until the cud of the
following year or the spring after that. Likes a moist and warm
situation.
TREFOIL, Shrubby.— Lat. Ptelea trifoliata. A shrub from
North America, from four to six feet high, and blows, in May
and June, a greenish yellow flower. Propagated by seed, cuttings,
and suckers. As hard frosts injure it when very young, it should
be put in a sheltered situation.
THORN, evergreen. — Lat. Mespilus pyracantha. A shrub
from the south of Europe. The flower is white, slightly tinged
with rose, and it blows in May and June. Propagated by seed,
grafts, and layers. There are two more sorts, the double and the
rose-coloured, which are more rare.
THUJA, the Chinese. — Lat. Thuja Orientalis. An evergreen
tree, originally from China, about thirty feet high. Blows in
March and April. Fit for pleasure-grounds of considerable size,
and shrubberies. Propagate from seed, and by layers. Thuja,
the American. — Lat. Thuja Occident alls. A tree belonging to
Canada, very much like the preceding one, and blows in February
and March. Propagated by seed sown in a warm place, in good
light earth. In about two years they should be transplanted at
about two feet apart, and toward the fourth year may be put
where they are to remain. They are also propagated by layers.
Not at all particular as to soil.
TRUMPET FLOWER, ash-leaved, or climbing.— Lat. Big-
nonia radicans. A hardy climber of North America, which grows
to thirty or forty feet high, and blows a most beautiful scat let
flower in July and August. Propagated by layers or by suckers,
or from the seed, and, whilst the plant is young, the root should
be covered with straw during the frost. Common g.irden soil.
TULIP-TREE.— Lat. Liriodendrun tulipi/era. This, in fact,
in its native country, is an immense timber-tree; and, in England,
where it is raised generally from layers, it is frequently seen at
s 2
260 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [cHAP.
the height of forty or fifty feet, and is suited only to such shrub-
beries as are of great dimensions. It bears a flower in the shape
of a tulip : like that of the tulip, the flower has no smell ; but not
like that of the tulip, the colours of the flower are not at all
interesting : the leaf is very beautiful, and preserves its freshness
during the hottest summer.
VERVAIN, three-leaved. — Lat. Verbena triphylla. A green-
house shrub from Chili. Blows a violet-coloured flower from
June till August. Propagated by layers and cuttings, in March
and April. Requires rich earth, to be watered frequently during
summer, and to be put into a green-house in winter.
VIBURNUM, Laurestine. — Lat. Viburnum Units. A hardy
evergreen shrub from the south of Europe, and blows in April a
cluster of flowers, red in the outside and white within. Propagated
by lavers, graflfs, and seed. Does well in any soil, grows to six
or eight feet high, and is very ornamental in shrubberies and on
lawns.
WIDOW-WAIL. — Lat. Cneorum tricoccum. A little orna-
mental green-house shrub, originally from the south of Fiance.
It blows in the months of June and July a small yellow flower.
Suited to a border of winter shrubs, and propagated by sowing the
seed under a frame, and transplanting in light soil and in the
shade. In the coldest season it requires shelter.
ZIZYPHUS, or Christ 's-thorn. — Lat. Paliurug acu/eatus. A
hardy shrub from the south of Europe : blows a yellow flower in
June and July. Propagated by suckers and cuttings, under a
hand-glass, as well as by seed. Does well in any soil.
It is not right for me to put this List of Shrubs out of my hand
without observing, that I by no means give it as a complete
botanical catalogue. I do not write for the curious in botany,
but for the use of those, for the practical application of those,
who have the means and the desire to make pretty spots fur
their pleasure. I might have inserted the names of a great
multitude of trees and of shrubs which are verv curious, but an
account of which would have been wholly out of place in a work
like this.
VI [.] FLOWERS. 261
FLOWERS.
321. These are annual, biennial, and perennial; or, fibrous,
tuberous, and bulbous. The list that I give below will consist of
some of each of these, but they will be arranged alphabetically,
and not according to the above distinguishing characters. These
are called herbaceous, to distinguish them from shrubs which are
ligneous, or woody. And, in their uses, it may be said that the
one is the flower of the shrubbery, and the other the flower of the
border.
322. Flowers are cultivated in beds, where the whole bed con-
sists of a mass of one sort of flower ; or in borders, where an
infinite variety of them are mingled together, but arranged so that
they may blend with one another in colour as well as in stature.
Beds are very little the fashion now, excepting amongst the
florists, who cultivate their tulips, hyacinths, and other choice
flowers, in this manner; but the fashion has for years been in
favour of borders, wherein flowers of the greatest brilliancy are
planted, so disposed as to form a regular series higher and
higher as they approach the back part, or the middle of the
border ; and so selected as to insure a succession of blossom from
the earliest months of the spring until the coming of the frosts.
This is easily attained by paying strict attention to the height and
time of flowering of plants, both of which I have taken care to
notice under each, in the alphabetical list below. In the mixed
beds of flowers, there are two things, which, more than all others,
tend to give them the desired agreeable appearance : one is, room
between the several plants. A mat of the most beautiful flowers
in the world, crowded up against each other, and out of all order,
never can look like any other than a mass of brilliant weeds.
There should be room, and considerable room, too, allowed to
every plant ; and those plants which spread much, should be
carefully kept within their proper bounds. The other is, the
careful tving up of such plants as require it, to sticks of proper
height and strength. Many do not want it at all, but many do,
and, if this be neglected or put off, a good high wind will tear up
the high plants, such as hollyhocks, African marigolds, marvel of
262 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
Peru, and make them the means of beating down and destroying
the lesser and, perhaps, choicer ones below them.
.323. In Chapter IV. I have treated at large of propagation and
cultivation in general, and, as to the propagation and cultivation
of flowers, I may refer my readers to that Chapter for the general
knowledge, and, therefore, I shall now only notice a few par-
ticulars that I did not go into there. The plants that I enumerate
in the following list are propagated either by seed, by cuttings or
pipings, bv parting the roots or the tubers, or by separating the
offsets. By seed. The general instructions given in Chap. IV.
par. 86 to 9b", are sufficiently in the reader's mind, and I need say
no more upon that. By cuttings or pipings, and by layers.
The instructions for striking the carnation fully explain this. — —
By parting the roots. This is taking up the plant, we will sup-
pose of the peach-leaved campanula, and dividing it into as many
parts as there are complete crowns ; each of which, if divided so
as for it to have a piece of root left with it, and if the operation
be performed early in the spring, will blow the same summer ;
but it is performed generally in the autumn, and the plant is
quite strong by the next spring. For parting the tubers of
tuberous-rooted plants, see the article ** Auricula," or "Ranun-
culus." By separating the offsets. This is, taking off the
two or three young bulbs that, on taking up a bulbous root, you
find growing at its side, its root being fixed on at the root, and its
bndv curling up round the body, of the mother bulb. Break
these off carefully, and treat them according to the instructions
given for each sort under the respective name of each. As to
their cultivation, I have spoken so much of it in general, that I
will not say any more upon that subject. But there is, in this
division of horticulture, cultivation in pofs and also in glesses.
Potting is a very nice operation ; it should always be done (as it
verv frequently is not) in the most careful manner possible. In
the first place, the pots that you are about to use should be
thoroughly clean, both inside and outside j for, nothing looks
woi>e than a set of dirty flower-pots, and nothing can thrive in
a mass of crusted earth which is often found filling flower-pots to
a third part of their height, having probably been left in them
ever since they were last used. Having a clean pot, put in a
handful of broken pot-sherds, put upon this, earth enough to fill
the pot a little less than half full, take the plant you are going to
VII.] LIST OF FLOWERS. 2G3
put into it, in your left-hand, and with as good a ball of earth
about its mots as cii cuiiistaiiccs will admit: hold it in the pot to
sec it there be euough, or too much earth in. The earth should
rise up about the stein of the plant to where ic did before \>ju
took it up, and neither higher nor lower : nature shows the exact
line at which the root cuds and the stem begins ; and you must
follow this. Place the plant on the earth ; hold it steady, while,
with your right-hand, you put in fine earth round the roots so as
to touch them in all parts ; that done, take hold of the edges of
the pot with your two hands, and rap it gently down on the
ground two or three times ; put on a little more earth, and finish
by giving a little water, which will cause the earth to settle im-
mediately about the roots. — If your pots be to remain out of
doors, place them on a fiat surface that has been previously
strewed over with coal ashes, and this will prevent worms getting
to them. Always observe to keep pots upright, so that the water
which you give them may run out, which, unless this be observed,
it will not, and rotting at the root takes place assuredly. Water
must be given every day in hot weather, and towards the close of
the day. In winter it need not be given so frequently, and it
should be in the fore part of the day, as then the plant has time to
imbibe the moisture before the cold of night comes on, which,
coming with the water, might hurt if not destroy it. In the
winter, the greatest care is necessary to keep out damp ; there-
fore, watering should be very sparingly performed, and none
splashed about the house or room in which the plants are kept.
When there is any appearance of moss on the surface of the earth
in the pots, stir it up with a little stick cut in the form of a knife :
break the earth fine, and, if you have any in reserve, strew a little
fresh earth over, after taking off that which had become mossy.
Jf there appear mouldiness at the joints of the plants you may be
sure that there is not air enough given, or that the place is damp.
In either case, open the lights when the sun is out, if it be not
exceedingly cold ; and keep up a steady and moderate fire bv
night till the place be thoroughly dry. — In glasses filled with
water, bulbous roots, such as the hyacinth, narcissus, and jonquil,
are blown. The time to put them in, is from September to No-
vember, and the earliest ones will begin blowing about Christmas.
The glasses should he blue, as that colour best suits the roots;
put water enough in to cover the root of the bulb ; let the water
264 SHRUBBERIFS AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
be sof, change it once a week, and put in a pinch of saltpetre
every time you change it. Keep the glasses in a place mode-
rately warm, and near to the light. A parlour window is a
very common place for them, but is often too warm, and brings
on the plants too early, and causes them to be weakly. This
should be avoided by all means, as it often causes a fine root to
blow badly. Of the narcissus kind, the polvanthus narcissuses
are, in my opinion, far the most to be preferred for glasses.
LIST OF FLOWERS.
ACONITE, or monk's-hood. — Lat. Aconitum napellus. A
perennial plant from Germany ; which has been long known in
English gardens, and is still cultivated, notwithstanding the warn-
ings of Miller and many others, who produce evidence of the
poisonous effects of the plant in all its parts ; and not only poi-
sonous when eaten, but even when injudiciouslv smelled to. Its
varieties are, deep blue, white, and red. It flowers in the months
of May and June, the flowers coming in a spike at the top of a
stalk of three feet high. The leaves are of a shining green, and
very much divided. It makes a considerable show in the larger
flower-borders ; likes almost any good soil ; and is propagated
either by parting the roots in the autumn, or by sowing the seeds
in the spring in the flower-nursery. Aconite (the pyramidal). —
Lat. A. pyramidatum. A very tall plant, growing full six feet high,
and blowing, in July and August, a very handsome long spikeof blue
flowers. A handsome plant for the back of borders. Hardy and
perennial. Propagate by seeds and by parting the roots. Aconite,
winter. — Lat. Helleborus hyemalis. A very common but pretty
little flower, yellow, growing close to the ground, and blowing, in
February and March, a little yellow flower seated close upon the
leaf. This plant should be placed in clusters and amongst the
early flowers, such as crocuses. It may be plentifully propagated
by parting the roots in summer-time, from June to October, when
the leaf has dried down.
ADAM'S NEEDLE.— Lat. Yucca flaccida. A South- American
VII.] i.isr OF FLOVVRKS. 265
plant, with thick coarse stiff leaves, hardy, and, in August, sending
up a single stem upon which there come a great Dumber of white
flowers covering this stem all the way up. Propagate by means
of suckers, and plant in a somewhat sandy soil.
ADONIS, pheasant'* eye. — Lat. Adonis annua. An annual
plant, which inhabits the environs of Paris, and a great part of
Prance and Europe ; and is generally found in fields, and places
which, are at all wet. The flower is of a deep red, and the plant
is straight and one or two feet high, and blossoms from July to
November. It sows itself, but is difficult to transplant, unless
done with great care and with a clod of earth at the roots. There
is a perennial kind which grows to about the same height as the
former, and blows very handsome and larger and yellow flowers.
It may be raised by seeds, or by dividing the roots.
ALYSSUM, yelloiv. — Lat. A. saxatile. A bunch of brilliant
yellow flowers in April and May. Plant growing and blowing
close to the ground ; hardy, fit for rock work, as well as for
borders ; propagate by slips or cuttings in the autumn and
winter.
AMARYLLIS, yelloiv. — Lat. Amaryllis lutea. A hardy bulb-
ous root of the south of Europe, which blows a yellow flower
in September; recpiires no more care than that ordinarily be-
stowed on hardy bulbous-rooted plants, and is propagated by
offsets, which should be nursed two years in a bed appropriated
to them. This is the only really hardy kind of this handsome
tribe, so much and so justly celebrated by the ancient poets ; but
there are one or two others, which, though none but those who
are curious and careful procure for themselves, are nevertheless
easily obtained from the florists who supply us with the choice
roots of hyacinth, narcissus, &c. and which I will, therefore, men-
tion. The Gukrn'sky Lily. — Lat. A. sarniensis. Is a most
beautiful autumnal flower, coming upon the summit of a blen-
der and elegant stem of about twelve inches high. This stem
is unaccompanied by leaf ; but, grouped with young seedling
geraniums, or any other green plants, they make an uncommonly
handsome appearance either in a conservatory or in a room. The
roots are procured from Guernsey by our florists, who import
them just as they are about to burst into bloom. Put them im-
mediately in pots having pot-sherds at the bottom, and being
filled with turfy loam mixed with some sand and a little peat earth.
266 SHllUBBERIliS AND FLOWElt-GARDENS. [CHAP.
Give water regularly j not much at a time; see that it drains off
well ; and keep the plant out of the heat of the sun or it will
quickly fade. Belladonna Lily. — Lat. A. Bdla-Bonna. A
larger plant than the last, hearing much larger flpwers, hanging
downward, five or sis in numher, and of a pale hlush. These are
procured in the same manner ; hut sometimes they arrive in Eng-
land eailier than at other times, according to the season ; hut
ahout the first week in September you should inquire for them;
for, as they come when just ready to blow, they come in and are
gone, almost in a day. This last plant, if put into the ground
deep enough, will live through our winters; but it is propeily a
frame plant.
AFRICAN BLADDER.— Lat. Hibiscus Africanus. Trailing
plant, hardy and perennial, blows a pretty large flower, light yel-
low, with a dark spot at the base of the petals. Flowers in July
and August : propagate by parting roots in autumn.
ANEMONE, single, or poppy. — Lat. A. coronaria. A hardy
tuberous-rooted plant from the Levant. There are double and
single sorts, both equally esteemed by the florists, and both cul-
tivated in the same manner : if from seed, sow in January under
a frame, having procured fine earth that has received the frost.
Make your bed very fine, and sow the seed pretty thickly over it,
and cover very lightly indeed with the same earth. Do not let
there be more than the thickness of a shilling of earth over the
seeds; and give very gentle waterings of soft water, from a fine-
rosed watering-pot, taking care that frost do not penetrate by
night, nor the mid-day sun ; for either would destroy the young
plants. When the plants are all up and are out in their rough
leaves, take off the glasses unless the weather be very severe, and
shade from sun by day : give gentle waterings, or admit showers
of rain. When the leaves of these plants have died away com-
pletely (which will be about the end of March), take up every
tuber carefully and put them by in drawers, till the next October
or November, and then plant them in beds or patches where you
mean them to blow in the nest spring. If you have sowed them
in drills in your bed, you will find it a much easier work to take
up the young tubers than if you had sowed them broad cast ; for
you easilv follow the rows and pick out the little pieces, which it
would puzzle you to distinguish from stones when sowed in ihe
other maimer. By dividing the roots of anemones you multiply
VII*] LIST OF FLOWERS. 267
your number very easily. Do this with a sharp knife when you
take up your roots that are overblown, cutting them into as many
pieces as there are strong and plump buds, each of which will
blow strongly the next spring. The soil for the anemone is a
good, strong, rich garden mould, and the manure rotten cow or
horse dung ; hut the former is mostly preferred, though neither
should he put too close to the roots of the plants, hut should he
digged in at a foot or a foot and a half below the surface of the
ground. Avoid planting in a much exposed situation, for the high
winds knock the plants about, and severe frost will cause them
sometimes to blow less finely than they would do without such.
Raise the beds to about three or four inches above the walks, so that
rains may not lie upon them ; and plant about the latter end of
October, though, if your soil be very wet, it may be better to plant
later (the middle of February), as the plant has less time to
lemain dormant and run the risk of rotting. Put in your roots at
five inches apart every way, making straight drills of about two
inches depth for their reception, and taking care to place them in
these at even distances, a great deal of the beauty of these beds
depending upon regular order. And, when all the roots are placed
in the drills, cover them over up to the edge of the drills with fine
earth. The bud, I need hardly say, of the root, or tuber, should
be uppermost, and the roots, which will have the appearance of
brown coarse threads, downwards. The anemone, though a very
hardy thing, certainly blows the finer if not pinched during its
growth bv frost*, and it is, therefore, the practice with all the
florists to be prepared with a suitable covering of wheaten or barley
straw as the winter approaches, so that the first intimation of frost
is a warning to them to cover over their beds of these and other
similar roots. They are, however, careful not to endanger vege-
tation by keeping these coverings on unnecessarily, when they
would assuredly cause the roots to become mouldy and eventually
to rot ; but they watch for frostv nights, and keep off the coverings
at all times excepting those. By the end of June, the plants begin
dying down, and that is the time for taking them up, separating
such as you mean to separate, and putting all by for the next
autumn. There are many varieties of anemone obtained by sow-
ing the seed ; but the handsomest are the scarlet turban and the
scarlet double.
ARCHANGEL, balm-leaved.— Lat. Lamium crvala. A hardy
26S SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
perennial plant of Italy, two feet high, and blows a flower of a
pale reddish violet colour, in May, June, and July. Readily in-
creased from suckers, and likes a good rich garden soil.
ARNICA, Corsican. — Lat. A. Corsica. A hardy perennial plant
which grows in the mountains of Corsica, and blows a yellow
flower in May and June. Propagated by seed and separating the
roots. Likes a light loamy soil. Is rather large and coarse.
ASPHODEL, yelloiv. — Lat. Asphodelus luteus. A perennial
plant, originally from Sicily. It is four feet high, blows in May,
June, and Julv, a brilliant yellow flower. It is multiplied by seed,
sown in a hot-bed in pots, and is easily propagated by separating
its roots. It likes a good moist soil, and is very ornamental when
in flower.
ASTER, Chinese. — Lat. A. Chinensis. An annual plant, the
height of which is from one to two feet. A native of China. It
blows in August and September. The flowers are variegated
with red, purple, violet, &c. and it is the great autumnal ornament
of every garden, flowering till the coming of frosts. Propagated
by seed, sowed in a hot -bed in the spring ; and, when the plants
have five or six leaves, plant them where they are to remain.
The species that are perennial are propagated by separating their
roots.
AVENS, the loater. — Lat. Geum rivale. An annual plant from
the Pyrenees and the Alps, which is one foot high, and blows a
yellow flower in June. Propagated by sowing the seed in open
ground in the shade, or by separating the roots in September or
Februarv. It does in any soil, but likes a moist and shady situa-
tion best.
AURICULA. — Lat. Primula Auricula. A florist's flower, pro-
pagated by seed, rooted slips, and offsets. It is a native of Swit-
zerland, but has been long a favourite plant with English, Dutch,
and French florists. It is hardy, but, like the anemone and
ranunculus, blows the better for care and protection in severe
winters, and in the heat of summer. If you propagate from seed,
sow in earthen pans or in boxes in December, or in March, and
cover very lightly; give an eastern aspect, and water gently now
and then. When the plants have five or six leaves, transplant
them into other boxes or pans, and let them have the same
management ; and, when they become strong, put them out in
your borders, where, when they flower, you can choose the most
VII.] LIST OF FLOWERS. 2!)9
fitting for the purpose of potting. Slips you pull off with your
hands, iiiul offsets cut off with a sharp knife ; both in the end of
July, or beginning of August. The soil most suitable to this plant
is ;i cool vegetable one ; and the artificial mixtures are very
numerous, but the one in most general use is half fresh garden
mould and half well-rotted cow-dung. A little sea sand thrown
in amongst it keeps it free. Auricula pots should he six inches
deep, and as large in circumference at the bottom as at the top ;
water only in dry times ; and, in continued wet, lay the pots on
their sides, unless you have a covered stage for them. Wooden
bars to stand the pots on are very useful. They prevent too great
a moisture getting at the roots of the plant, which is the case
when the pots stand on the ground, and they also prevent the
worms getting in. A slight covering during the frosts of winter
is necessary for a fine blow. Those plants which are planted out
in the border should be taken up and parted every three years, or
they become weak, blow but little, and shortly die.
BALSAM. — Lat. Impatiens balsamina. From the East Indies.
A most beautiful, but rather tender, annual plant. Well known
to almost everybody, and almost universally cultivated, and is
very ornamental in the flower borders, in the green-house, and in
the parlour. It blows in July, August, and September, double
and single flowers, red, pink, white, or variegated. The best way
of propagating is bv sowing the seed early in March in a moderate
hot-bed. By April, the plants must be potted off singly, and then
struck in the hot-bed again ; then accustom them by degrees to
the open air, and early in May put them out into the borders, or
put them into large pots ; according as you design them to blow.
In a fine warm summer they will be finer in the open air than in
the green-house or stove ; less drawn up, and bearing flowers
larger and far more abundant, and towards the fall they will ripen
seed in abundance, which should he carefully gathered every even-
ing. The pods should be very cautiouslv approached for this
purpose, as, if ripe, they fly in pieces instantly, on being touched,
and scatter the seed in all directions. See that the pod be a little
yellow before you gather it, and then fold your hand round it,
and let it fly open within your fingers. But, to return to the
plants, these will never want water after they are once well rooted
in the open ground ; but a little stirring of the ground round
them has a great effect on their growth. Those that you keep in
270 SHUUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [cHAP.
pots will, of course, want some water, but not a great deal ; and
they should be kept from the scorching sun. Good garden soil
suits them best.
BARREN-WORT. — Lat. Epimedium Alpinum. A perennial
plant, and an inhabitant of the mountains of the south of Europe.
It is a foot high, and in April and May blows a flower, the exte-
rior of which is red, and the interior yellow. It is easily propa-
gated by separating the roots, and it likes good moist earth and a
shady situation.
BEAR'S EAR. — Lat. Cortusa matthioli. A perennial frame
plant of the Alps, five or six inches high, and blows a pink flower,
partaking of the violet, in May. Propagated by dividing the roots,
and should be cultivated in heath-mould.
BIRTH WORT, the common. — Lat. Aristolochia clematitis. A
perennial plant very common in England. It is about two feet
high, the flower of a pale yellow, and blows in May and July.
Propagated by separating the roots. Birth wort, the long. —
Lat. A. longa. A perennial plant which blows from June till
October. The flower is of a red brown at the top, and a bluish
violet at the bottom. It is a native of the south of France. Pro-
pagated by separating the roots, which have a strong aromatic
odour.
BLATTARIA. — Lat. Verbascum. A biennial plant, hardy, its
leaves growing close upon the ground, and sending up one stalk
two or three feet high in the spring, on which come a multitude
of flowers shaped like the primrose, and of a deep yellow, reddish
yellow, or white colour. A very pretty plant, propagated by sow-
ing the seeds. It is also called the moth mullien. Blows in July,
August, and September.
BULBOCODIUM.— Lat. B. vernum. A bulbous-rooted plant
from the Pyrenees, that blows a light purple flower in March.
Should be moved in July. Likes heath-mould, and rather a
shady situation.
BROYVALLIA — Lat. B. data. This is a tallish plant of most
beautiful blue colour. It is a stove or green -house plant ; but,
being raised in a hot-bed in spring, may be turned out into warm
flower borders to blow. Annual. Flowers from June to Septem-
ber, and grows two feet high.
BUGLOSS, viper s. — Lat. Echium violaceum. Tall, handsome,
hardy annual, growing four feet high, and blowing, in July and
VII.] LIST OF FLOWEHS. 27 1
August, abundance of brilliant flowers, of a rich blue and red
blender! together. Propagate by seeds sown early in opting*
CACALIA, sow-thistle leaved.— Lat. C sunctijoliu. An annual
stove plant from the Last Indies, growing one foot high, and blow-
ing a flower of an orange-red colour in July. Propagated from
seed sowed in a frame in March. Requires very little water, and
should he kept out of the house during the summer.
CACTUS. — Lat. C. spiciosus. A perennial succulent plant
from Carthagena ; throws up nianv long fleshy leaves festooned at
the sides, and, in Mav, June, and Julv, blows an exceedingly beau-
tiful rose-coloured flower, about three inches long, and double. This
plant likes a mixture of light mould and brick rubbish. Requires
very little water except when in flower, and must be brought for-
ward in the green-house, or frame ; though, in a very warm room
to the south, it will blow. Force it into flower by bruising the
ends of the leaves; and propagate by cuttings, which, being left
in a dry place for a day or two till the cut end become dry, and
then stuck in a pot of mould, will strike quickly ; but these will
not flower for a couple of years.
CALTROPS, small. — Lat. Tribulus terrestris. A hardy annual
plant from the south of Europe, and blows a yellow flower in June
and July. Propagated by sowing seed in a hot- bed, and, when
they are fit, transplanting them where they are to remain.
CAMPANULA, the pyramid. — Lat. C pyrami talis. From
Savoy. A perennial plant of great beauty, which grows to about
four or live feet in height, with several minor branches, the main
one blowing a long spike, or pyramid, of delicate sky-blue flowers,
in the months of July and August. Propagated by seed, and by
parting the root. The seed should be sowed in the spring in a
bed of fine earth, under a hand-glass, shaded from the strong heat
of the sun, and watered now and then with a fine-rosed watering
pot. The seed comes up readily if not covered deeply, and, by
the fall, the plants will be fit to transplant into a nursery bed,
where they should remain until the following spring, when some
of them may be thinned out to be planted in the flower-borders,
where they may blow the same year ; and the rest, being carefully
tilled between, will be fine strong plants by the third year, and
mav all be put out in the same manner, or potted in large wide-
topped pots to be brought into the house, where they make a verv
fine show. By parting the roots after the first year of blowing,
2/2 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [cHAF\
you multiply your plants, and each plant that you take off is the
stronger for being severed; but the plants thus used decline every
year; therefore, keep up a succession of plants from the seed, by
all means. As to soil, this plant is not very particular, though it
likes a good mould ; but it is very particular in its aversion to
manure, which is destruction to it. It is one of the most orna-
mental plants that can be conceived, and suits any situation well.
Campanula or Canterbury-Bell. — Lat. ft medium. A
very pretty German plant ; throws up numerous branches in April
and May, garnished thickly with long and hairy leaves, and in
June and Julv blows abundance of verv handsome pendulous
flowers, either white or light blue ; larger than a common thimble,
but somewhat resembling one in shape. It is biennial, and should
be sowed every spring either in a hot-bed or not, according to
convenience, and then pricked out when it comes into rough leaf.
So let it remain till the autumn, when you will plant it either in
the borders or in the pots where you intend it to blow. Cam-
panula, peach-leaved. — Lat. C. persicifolia. The last of the
Campanulas that I shall mention. It is a native of the northern
parts of Europe ; a perennial plant that also sends up a great many
shoots in the spring of the year, and bears flowers of the same
colours as the last, but some are double and some single, and
all are much broader than those of the last-mentioned plant,
but are shorter in length. Propagate by dividing the roots j
or, more tediously, by sowing the seeds as soon as ripe. All these
plants are handsome, and should form a part of the collection of
every one who aims at having an attractive flower-garden ; and
no one of them but the first is particular as to soil.
CAMPION, the rose. — Lat. Agrostema coronaria. A plant
originally from Lyons and Italy, one or two feet high, and blow-
ing a bright red flower from June to September. Other varieties
have white and double flowers. Propagated bv sowing the seed
as soon as ripe, in light earth exposed to the sun, and planting
out the following March. Also by sowing in a hot-bed or in
borders in the spring. Is hardy, and will sow itself when in a
warm and dryish soil.
CANl>Y-TLFT, the purple. — Lat. lberis umbeUata. An an-
nual plant from the south of Fiance. About two feet high, and
blows, in June and July, a great abundance of purplish flowers.
Propagated by seed sown in beds where it is to blow. Any soil
VII.] LIST OF FLOWERS. '2/3
suits it, and it is very ornamental, when sown thickly in little
clumps. There is a white variety.
CANTERBURY-BELL.— See Campanula.
CASSIA, dwarf* — Lat. C. chanuerista. Leaf-like acacia, hand-
some deep yellow flower, annual. Should he raised in a hot-hed
carefully, and not put out till June ; when in a warm border,
will blow in August.
CARNATION. — Lat. Dianihus caryophyUus. An indigenous
plant j a perennial, but one that has been improved by the great
care that florists have bestowed upon it for many years. It is,
indeed, by many esteemed the finest of flowers, next after the
tulip; which it surpasses in one respect, that of adding great
fragrance to great beauty. It is cultivated either in beds, borders,
or pots : in the latter for the parlour chiefly; and it is propa-
gated by layers, pipings, or seed. It blows, from July to August,
flowers of from two to three, or even four inches diameter, of
divers colours, and either single, semi-double, or double. But
there are three distinct varieties ; which are, the Flake, the
Bizarre, the Picotee. The flake has two colours only, and their
stripes are large : the bizarre is variegated with spots and stripes
irregularly, and has not less than three colours ; the picotee has
mostly a white ground spotted with scarlet, red, purple, pink, or
some variety of these colours. The stalk of the carnation should
rise to near three feet, and the bud should be long and uniform,
not bursting but at its top to let out the flower, or, if appearing
likely to burst at the side, it is as well to open corresponding
apertures at two other places, so as to let out the flower evenly
all round. The plant is hardy, but to blow well, it should be
defended from excess of wet, especially the wet at the beginning
of winter, as it renders it more susceptible of frost ; and yet it is
necessary to avoid stifling it. It cannot do without a free circula-
tion of air, therefore whatever covering of mats or otherwise vou
use, be careful to keep it off at all times but in constant rain.
To propagate by layers, take some compost of one of the two
kinds that 1 mention below as proper for this plant ; stir the
ground with a small hoe round the plant from which you are
going to make your layers, and place the compost round on the
newly- moved earth ; then take as many of the stalks as you
mean to lay (let it be about the time of their being in full bloom) ;
fix your knife (a sharp narrow-bladed one) in at an inch below
T
■
274 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
the third joint from the blossom, and bring it up the middle of
the stalk until you enter the joint, which you must scarcely divide
in two : there stop, then, and pull out your knife. Bend down the
stalk to the earth, and make a little drill with your two fore-fingers
of one hand, sufficient to hide the whole of the split and a little
more at each end of it ; put a little wooden peg with a hook to it
into the side of the drill, and push it into the ground so far as for
it to come down and fix the stalk at the bottom of the drill where
you are holding it, and then cover over with compost, pressing it
gentlv down with the flat of your hand. By pipings, about the
first of July, take the two top joints of a branch, which are the
fittest for this purpose ; cut off immediately below the second
joint, and with a sharp instrument ; peel off the outer loose skin
from the joint, and make a little split up it for about two eighths
of an inch ; shorten the leaves a little way above the upper joint,
and this will leave vour piping about two inches long. Having
procured the number of pipings that you mean to plant, throw
them into a basin of rain water to soften them. You will now
have to plant them, either in the open ground, or on a hot-bed ;
but, in either case, you must cover them with a hand-glass, or a
striking-glass, which is a small hand-glass, not more than eight
or ten inches square. On a gentle hot-bed is best, the mould
being one third maiden earth, one third leaf- mould, one third
well-rotted horse-dung, and with a sprinkling of sharp sand
amongst it. Place your glass down where you are going to put
the pipings, and thus mark out the space ; then take your pipings
out of the basin and force them, one by one, into the mould to
about three parts of an inch of their length, and let them be an
inch apart from one another. Do not put on the glass till all the
leaves and stalks are dry, for they would inevitably rot if you were
to do this. When they are dry, however, put on the glass,
making its edges fit exactly into the mark that you made by its
means before you began planting, and thus you will not disturb or
crush any of the outer pipings. Thrust the edges of the glass
down a little way into the earth, so that no air can get in. This
is what the French call stiflhty. Shade by means of netting or
matting from the sun, but yet do not exclude its rays completely.
It is in giving air, light, and moisture, at this time, and for the
following three weeks, that the greatest skill is required. If the
pipings appear to be doing well, that is, looking of a good colour
VII.] LIST OF FLOWERS. 275
and not contracting mould, let the glass stand for about ten days
without being moved; but, unless the weather be wet, water over
the glass every morning. At the end of ten days, take it off;
let it be early in the morning if the weather be dry and hot; and
nun ilie glass upside down that it may become aired. If vou
perceive any pipings beginning to mould, puil them up instantly;
give a little water through a fine rose : let the plants drv again
perfectly, and then again put on the glass. The weather being
favourable, give air every morning for half an hour or an hour;
but never shut up whilst the pipings are wet; and, if you have
showery weather, give air between showers, if it be but for five
minutes of a morning. In about six weeks they will be fit to
transplant into small pots ; make use of the same sort of mould ;
plunge the pots, or simply stand them, in another gentle bed, and
put frames or hand glasses over them till your plants have struck
again ; and here they may remain till September, when you pot
them or plant them out. If you perform this work in the open
ground, choose a spot under a wall facing the east, where none but
the morning sun comes; use the same preparation of mould, and
use a hand-glass, acting in all respects as prescribed in case of a
hot-bed. Pot off your plants in the month of March following;
using pots of about twelve inches wide at top, and eight inches wide
at bottom ; these should have good clean circular holes at the
bottoms, and, beside, two or three smaller holes in their sides at
about two inches from the bottom; and these effectually prevent
water remaining about the roots of the plants. The same soil
that you struck your plants in will do to blow them in. 1 will
here give Miller's direction for a mixture, and then proceed
to the propagating by seed : " Take mould from a good upland
pasture, or a common that is of a hazel earth ; dig out earth from
the first eight inches from the surface ; let this be laid in a heap to
mellow for one year ; then mix a third part of rotten neat's dung,
or dung of an old cucumber bed ; mix them well together, turn
the heap every month for eight months, and it will be fit for use."
By seed. The seed of the carnation does not everv summer ripen
in England ; but seed is procured from the continent in abun-
dance. Sow in pots of light earth, or on a cool bed with a frame
over it, in the month of April ; and cover it in the slightest pos-
sible maimer. Shade the young plants horn hot sun ; and, whei.
they have six leaves, prick them out two or three inches asundei,
t2
276 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
in a well -prepared bed of the garden. The next year they will
flower, and therefore should be planted out, or potted for blowing,
in the fall of their first year's growth. Lastly, the carnation is
greatly the prey of ear-wigs, so much so, that precautions the most
careful are always resorted to to prevent the plants falling a sacri-
fice to these mischievous vermin. See paragraph 309.
CATCHFLY. — Lat. Silene compata. A very pretty little
hardy annual, which should be sown very early in thick clumps.
Jt produces abundance of seed, and if suffered to sow itself, will
come up in the autumn and be very strong, and early in the spring.
Blows in July and August, and grows a foot and a half high.
Lobel's Catchfly is a very handsome perennial, blowing a very
pretty double peach-blossom-coloured flower in May and June,
which rises from a tuft of leaves to about eighteen inches in
height. Likes a good garden mould, but is not very particular
in that respect ', and it is very easily propagated by parting the
roots in spring or autumn.
CENTAURY, or sweet sultan. — Lat. Centaurea moschata.
A hardy annual plant from the Levant, about two feet high, and
blows a purple flower in July and August. Centaury, or
yellow sweet sultan. — Lat. C. suaveolens. A hardy annual plant
from the Levant, one or two feet high, and blowing a yellow
flower in July and August. Propagated by sowing in pots
or in a bed, and planting out when the young plants are large
enough.
CHRYSANTHEMUM, Indian.— tat. C. Indicum. A perennial
plant of China and India, which grows three feet high, and blows
beautiful deep purple, white, and yellow flowers in November and
December. Propagated by dividing the roots in spring, or by
cuttings in summer, and requires moving every two years, and
good rich land. Chrysanthemum, corn marigold. — Lat. C.
segelum. An annual plant, common amongst wheat, which grows
one foot high, and blows a yellow flower in July. Propagated
by sowing. Chrysanthemum, garden. — Lat. C. coronarium.
An annual plant from the south of France, which grows two or
three feet high, and blows a yellow or white flower in July,
August, and September. Propagated by sowing the seed where it
is to blow.
CHELONE. — Lat. C. barbala. A perennial plant, originally
from Mexico, which blows a beautiful red flower in July and
VII.] 1 1ST OF FLOWERS. 277
August. Rather tender. About three feet high. Chhlone,
the bcll-fhjircred. — Lat. C. campanulata. A perennial plant from
Mexico, which blows, in July and August, a red flower. About a
foot high. Cjiklonk, the downy. — Lat. C. petutfamon. A
perennial plant from Virginia. It is about a foot high, aim1
blows, in July and August, a flower which is yellow in the inside
and light purple on the outside. They are all three multiplied by
seed, as well as by separating their roots, in the autumn. They
are not very delicate, but it is best to give them a moist earth and
shady situation.
CINERARIA, or rag -wort. — Lat. C. maritima. A perennial
plant from the sea-coasts of Provence and Languedoc. Grows two
feethigh, and blows a shaded yellow flower from June to September.
Propagated by suckers and by seeds ; if the latter, it blows the
second year. Jt should have a rich soil.
CIST17S, common dwarf, or little sun-flou-er. — Lat. C. helian-
Iki'muii). A perennial plant from the south of France, blows a
yellow flower from May till September. There are varieties ; white
and rose-coloured, and all hardy, and are easily increased from
the seed, which should be brought forward in pots.
CLARKEA PULCHELLA. — An annual, blowing, in June
and July, a very pretty pale pink flower. The plant grows
about a foot high, the leaves as well as the flower are very irre-
gularly shaped ; and, though a very pretty flower, the plants
should stand thickly together, or they do not make much show.
Sow in the beginning of April, in clumps.
COLCHICUM, or meadow-saffron. — Lat. C. autumnale. A
bulbous plant common in Europe, about three or four inches high,
and blows a reddish purple flower in September and October.
Propagated from offsets, taken off when the leaves are quite dead,
and planted in July or the beginning of August. It is common
in the upland meadows of Herefordshire, and other counties of
England.
COLUMBINE. — Lat. Aqmlegia vulgaris. A perennial plant,
commonly found in gardens, two or three feet high, and blows a
blue, red, white, or variegated flower in June and July. It likes
shade, and stiff earth, and is propagated by dividing the roots in
the autumn. The single-flowered may be obtained bv sowing the
seeds ; but, if sown in the spring, they seldom pome up, and never
till the next year.
2/8 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
COMFREY-LEAVED HOUND'S-TONGUE.— Lat. Cynoglos-
sum omphalodes. A perennial plant, originally from Piedmont
and Portugal, about three or four inches high, and blowing a blue
flower in March. Propagated by dividing the tufts, in which it
grows, after it has flowered. Likes a fresh soil, and requires
water in very dry weather.
CONVOLVULUS MINOR. — Lat. C. tricolor. A hardy,
trailing, annual plant from Sicily, which blows a shaded blue-
and-white flower in June, Julv, and August. Propagated by sow-
ing the seed in light and rather warm earth. Convolvulus
Major. — Lat. Convolvulus pvrpureus. An annual climber, of
great beauty. Grows eight or nine feet high, if it have sticks of
that height given it to run up, and blows, from July to Septem-
ber, a beautiful bell-shaped purple or white flower, in great
abundance, but open only in the mornings and evenings of the
hot months of July and August. Sow in April where it is to
stand, or in March in pots to transplant. Sow some in pots to
bring into the house ; but in no case have more than two plants
in one spot, as they branch out and become so heavy that winds
and rains tear them about and endanger other neighbouring plants
by their means. Stake them as soon as they are beginning to run,
and cut away straggling branches that they will send out from the
bottom. Their height sufficiently proclaims them a plant to be
placed in the back part of the flower-border.
CORAL-TREE.— Lat. Erythrina Crista-galli. This is properly
a shrub, but I put it amongst herbaceous plants, because, when
grown in the open air, it dies down and becomes so in effect. It
is so beautiful a plant, both in flower and in leaf, that every orna-
mental gardener should attempt to have it, at any rate. The flower
is something in the shape of the pea-blossom, but is as large as
that of the pomegranate ; it is precisely the colour of a cock's-
comb, and blows in August and September abundance of these
beautiful flowers. It is generally grown as a hot-house shrub;
but I have seen it, when planted under a wall in good aspect,
produce belter flowers and more of them than I ever saw on the
hot-house plants. When planted out thus it dies down at winter,
and should be covered over with litter. Propagate by cuttings
with a joint, placed in sandy loam ill a moderate and moist heat,
covering the cuttings with a hand-glass.
COREOPSIS, ear-leaved. — Lat. C. auriculata. A hardy per-
VII. I LIST OF FLOWERS. 279
ennial of North America, two feet in height, and blows a yellow
flower from August to September. Cokkopsis, ufternate-
feared. — Lat. C.delphinifolia. A perennial plant of North Ame-
rica, eighteen inches high, and blows a yellow and very bright
flower from July till October. Both sorts propagated by dividing
their roots. Any soil suits them, but they like an open situation.
COR IS, Montpelier. — Lat. Monspeliensis. A biennial frame
plant of the southern coast of France, seven or eight inches high,
and blows a pretty red flower in May and June. Propagated by
seed sowed in pots in the spring, and likes a light and sandy soil,
and but little water.
CORX-FLAG. — Lat. Gladiolus communis. A plant from the
south of France, one or two feet high, and blows, in June and
July, a purplish flower. The Supkrb — Lat. G. cardinalis — is
larger than the common, and is of a fine deep scarlet, with large
white spots on its lower petals. Grows two or three feet high.
Flowers in July and August. The variety called Gladiolus Py-
ramidalis is also very handsome, and is an abundant flowerer. For
the treatment of these plants, see Ixia ; for what suits that plant
suits these. Propagate them all by offsets.
COWSLIP. — Lat. Primula veris. A hardy perennial plant,
common in meadows all over England. It blows a pale yellow
flower in April and May. Propagated by separating the roots,
also by seed, sown in November and December, in shallow pots
full of good light earth. The seed sown on the surface of this
earth should be lightly covered with sandy or heath mould, and
the pots exposed to the east. Should remain a year in the pots,
and be planted out in the spring. Cowslip, Virgini.vn. —
Lat. Dodecatheon meadia. A perennial plant from Virginia,
which is about eight or nine inches high, and blows in April or
May. It does very well in the open ground, and when kept in a
house in pots, it should be exposed to the air in mild weather It
likes good earth, mixed with rotten dung. Propagated by sepa-
rating the roots every three or four years.
CREPIS, or Hawk's beard, purple. — Lat. Crqns rubra. A
hardy annual plant of the south of Fiance, about eight or ten
inches high, and blows a purple flower in June and July. Pro-
pagated by sowing in borders in the spring, and planting out when
the plants have a few leaves.
CROCUS. — Lat. C. remits. Indigenous bulb ; and one of
280 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
the earliest ornaments of our flower-gardens. There are several
varieties ; yellow, pale yellow, blue, striped, and white. All are
handsome, but none make so great a show in the border as the
deep yellow, which should always be planted in clumps of ten or
a dozen plants in a clump, the bulbs at three inches from one an-
other, and the clumps should be in the front of borders in which
there are shrubs, or between the shrubs so as not to be out of
sight. Planting them in long rows spoils the effect : but having
alternate clumps of yellow and blue gives an additional variety,
and adds somewhat to the gayety always produced by this hand-
some little plant. Do not cut off the leaves of your crocuses
when they are overblown ; as this only weakens the plant. Move
them when their leaves are dying down in autumn, but not more
than once in three years. Separate the offsets then, which you
will find abundant, and thus, with little trouble, you propa-
gate them. The crocus likes a good, rather light, and not
wet, garden soil ; and it should be planted two inches deep in the
ground.
CYCLAMEN, or sow-bread. — Lat. C. Europceum. A peren-
nial frame plant from Austria. Blows, in April, a flower that is
white, tipped with pink. Propagated by seed, sowed as soon as
gathered, or by offsets. Likes a sheltered situation, and a south-
east aspect. Does best in heath-mould. Blows the third or
fourth year after sowing.
DAFFODIL, the onion-leaved.— -Lat. Asphodelus fistulosus.
A bulbous plant, and a native of the south of France. Its height
is about two feet, it blows from June till September ; the flower is
white with a red stripe. It is multiplied by the seed, sown in pots,
and put into a hot-bed ; and it is easily propagated by separating
its roots. It likes a good moist soil. Daffodil, reflexed. —
Lat. Narcissus triandrus. Bending neck, and the petals turning
up. Light yellow. Found in the Pyrenees. Grows eight inches
high. Blows in March and April, is as hardy and may be treated
like the others of the species. Daffodil, the great. — Lat.
Narcissus major. The largest of the species. Flowers in April ;
and is readily propagated by offsets ; differs from Narcissus
pseudo-narcissus, by being much taller, having leaves much
more twisted, as well as more glaucus ; its flowers much larger,
and the petals more spreading. It varies with double flowers.
•—■Daffodil, least, — Lat. Narcissus minor. Blossoms yellow,
VII.] LIST OF PLOWKRS. 2S1
double, not so large as those of the other species, hut flowers
much earlier ; not more than three inches high. Plant in clusters,
and propagate by offsets, which come feat.
DAHLIA. — A tuberous perennial plant, originally from Mexico*
It grows to the height of ten or twelve feet in rich land, and blows
a large handsome flower, red, yellow, white, primrose, purple or
scarlet, in September, continuing till the setting in of frosts. The
height to which it grows renders it unfit for very small ^arden^,
hut the beauty of some of the double varieties, causes it to be
often found even in the smallest. For extensive parterres, the outer
rows of shrubberies, and for corners that want hiding, this is a
magnificent plant; and it is also to be kept to a moderate height,
but only by putting it in unmanured and poor soil. The poorer
the soil, the lower it will be ; and yet it will blow well in such.
Always keep it, when in a growing state, tied to good high and
stout stakes. Propagate by parting the root, or by cuttings which
root very freely if planted in the spring with two joints to them ;
for from seed, though you procure fresh varieties, you lose the
sort that you saved vour seed from. When the stems begin to be
nipped by the frosts, dig up the plants carefully, letting as much
mould stick to them as will do so, and hang them up in some
place that is neither hot nor damp. They shrivel up if in too drv
a place, and they rot infallibly if in a damp place. In April, part
the roots and replant them. They frequenely appear dead when
they are not so. Keep them from frost, of course. I subjoin a
list of a few of the handsomest sorts now in fashion ; but, as the
varieties are increasing yearly at a rapid pace, it is impossible to
give, in the space that I have for it, anything like a full list. The
Countess of Liverpool, an immense scarlet flower, plant growing
five or six feet high. Atro purpurea superba. Bumardia, fine
red. Bedfordiana, very dark. Densa, rose. Crimson mult [flora.
Exhnia, orange. Lilac pumila. Man of Kent, bright purple.
Morning star, scarlet. New Blanda, lilac. Painted Lady, rose
and white. Priscilentissima, white. Bulla, very dark. Crim-
son globe. Scarlet turban. Cocci nia s]>eciosissinia. Queen of
Boses. King of the Whites. Large yellow. Lee's Globe orange.
Lee's Atracta anenwneflora.
DAISY. — Lat. Bellia perennis. Indigenous ami perennial.
Varieties are pale red, deep red, green-hearted, variegated, and
white, and it is used for edgings, but is a very poor thing for the
282 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
purpose. It is a pretty little plant, nevertheless, and, in little
clumps, parted every year in order not to degenerate, it adds to
the beauty of the front rows of the flower-border. Propagated
onlv bv parting the roots, in February or March.
DELPHINIUM.— See Larkspur.
DEVIL-1N-A-BUSH. — Lat. Nigella Damascena. Is about two
feet high ; blows a sky-blue flower from June till September.
Propagated by seed, sown in patches, where it is to remain. Likes
a warm situation. Native of the south of France, and an annual.
DRAGON'S-HEAD. — Lat. Dracocephalum Austriacum. —
From the south of Europe, perennial, from eight inches to a foot
high, sending up numerous stems, and blowing tufts of blue or red
flowers in July and August. Likes good rich earth, and is easily
multiplied by parting the roots, or by sowing in beds. Should be
separated at least every three years.
DOLICHOS. — Lat. D. purpureus. A pretty climber of the
East Indies ; grows ten or twelve feet high if trained up a frame
or a string; and blows a beautiful pale lilac pendulous flower in
June and July. Propagated by cuttings planted under a hand-
glass, or by seed, which ripens freelv.
EGG-PLANT. — Lat. Solatium melongena. An annual plant,
originally from Asia and America. About fifteen inches in height,
and blows white or violet flowers in June and July. Bears a fruit
which is eaten, but it is raised here only for the curiosity of the
egg-shaped fruit which it bears. It likes a light rich soil, and is
readily procured by sowing the seeds.
ERYTHRINA.— See CoualTree.
FERRAR1A, curled. — Lat. F. widulata. A party-coloured
singular flower with waved edges, the flower resembling in shape
and position the tiger lily. Bulb. Flowers from February to
May. Propagate by offsets. Treatment similar to Ixias. Flower
opens in the morning and closes in the afternoon ; but blows
abundantly.
FIG, the common Indian. — Lat. Cactus opuntia. From Ame-
rica, where it grows on rocky places, and dry hills, and, in the
month of July, blows a yellow flower. This is a green-house
plant in England. It is very succulent, and should not be much
watered except during the time that it is flowering, and then it
may have more water. Cuttings root readily in pots. Perennial.
FIG MARIGOLD. — Lat. Mesembryanthaavm biculorvm. This
VII.] LIST OF FLOUEItS. 283
species expands only when the sun is hot upon it, when it is a
splendid red. Native of the Cape. Flowers in July ; readily
propagated by cuttings; requires shelter during winter. Perennial,
and grows three feet high. — See Mkskmiii: yavi im;m r\i.
FOXGLOVE, /aw yellow. — Lat. Digitally parviflora, A
perennial plant from Italy, two or three feet high, and Mows a
yellow flower in June and July. Propagated from seed, and sows
itself. Large Yellow. — Lat. D. ambigua. A perennial,
with larger flowers than the foregoing, yellow with a hue of
purple. Grows three feet high, flowers in the same manner and at
the same time as the rest of the kind ; and should he treated and
propagated in the same manner. Common Foxglove. — Lat.
Diffitali* purpurea. A biennial plant, found commonly in Eng-
land, two or three feet high, and blows a purplish red flower in
June, July, August and Septemher. There is a white variety of
this species; both are very ornamental, and are propagated by
seeds, sown and otherwise managed, just as you do theCanterburv-
bell, which see.
FRAXIXELLA, or wli'x'e Dittany. — Lat. Dictamnus albi's.
A perennial plant, originally from the south of France, about two
feet high, and blows a white or purple flower, in June and July.
Propagated by sowing the seed in borders, or in pots, as soon
as ripe. If not sowed till the spring, it does not come up till
the second year. When the plants can be moved, they must be
put in a nursery to stay two or three years before being planted
where they are to blow. When the roots are strong enough, parts
may be taken off, and it may thus be obtained with less trouble
than by sowing. The fraxinella affords scarcely any flower till
the fifth year after sowing ; but its flowers are so abundant and
so handsome, its leaves so rich in colour and in odour, and the
whole plant is so elegant, that, where you cannot procure roots,
it well deserves the pains and the patience necessary to procure it
from seed. It likes a good soil, and, in the winter, requires a
covering of litter after the stalk has died down.
FRITILLARV, crown imperial. — Lat. FritiUaria imperialis.
A large plant from Persia, near three feet high, proceeding from
a large, nearly round, scaly bulb of nauseous smell. It blows, in
April, a red flower hanging downwards, like a tulip turned down.
Another variety blows a yellow flower ; and this latter is by far
the handsomest. Propagate by parting the offsets every two or
284 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAF.
three years ; take up the plants in July, long before which time
the stalks will have died down ; take off what offsets may appear
at the sides of the mother bulbs, and then keep them all in a dry
place till the middle of August, when you will do well to plant
them again, as this bulb will not do so well if it remain long out
of ground. Plant at three or four inches depth in land not too
much manured, and not too stiff or wet, as it likes rather a sandy
loam.
FUMATORY, bulbous. — Lat. Fumaria bulbosa. A perennial
plant, a native of Europe, five or six inches high, and blows a
purplish flower in February, March, and April. Propagated by-
separating the roots in autumn, or by sowing the seed in beds
exposed to the sun. Yeij.ow Fumatory. — Lat. F. lutea. A
perennial plant, from mountainous places in England, growing one
or two feet high, and blowing a yellow flower from April to
November. Propagated like the bulbous fumatory.
GAURA, biennial. — Lat. G. biennis. A hardy plant of Virgi-
nia, five or six feet high, and blows a very pretty flower, of a
pale red colour, from August to September. Propagated by
sowing the seed, which may be done as soon as it is ripe ; it will
then come up in the spring, and blow the following year.
GERANIUM, striped. — Lat. G. striatum. This species is finelv
striped on the petals with red veins, and the leaves are marked at
the corner with a spot of purplish brown colour. Hardy plant,
without stalk, blowing in May and June. Propagate by parting
roots. Prefers loamy soil and shady situation.
GENTIANELLA.— Lat. Gentiana Acaulis. Three inches high.
Naturally this plant has not a stalk, but by cultivation it has
acquired one. A brilliant blue bell- shaped flower. Does not
prosper very near London : being an alpine plant, it likes an airy
situation and loamy soil moderately moist. Flowers in Mav;
and is well worthy of some pains in obtaining. Propagate by
parting roots in autumn ; but the best plants come from seed. It
is a perennial plant.
GERMANDER, the shining. — Lat. Teucrii/m lucidum. A
plant that inhabits Provence, Picmont, and St. Bernard. Blows,
in June and July, a reddish purple flower, and is from one to two
feet high. Propagated by seed, sown in a hot- bod and in borders,
as well as by separating the roots in autumn. Any soil will
suit it.
VII.] LIST OF FLOWERS. 285
GLADIOLUS.— Sec Corw Flag.
GLOBE-FLOWER.— Lat. Droltiia Evropoeui. A hardy per*
ennial plant of England, about one foot high, and blows a yel-
low flown- in May, and sometimes again in September. Pio-
pagated l>v dividing the roots in the autumn, and it should have
a moist, but not too shady, situation.
ULQIW' LAIU A,wedye-leuved. — Lat. G. cordifolia. A perennial
frame plant of Provence, blowing a blue flower at the latter end
of April. Propagated by sowing in pots or in a hot-bed. When
once obtained they are easily perpetuated by dividing the roots.
They like a light soil. GlobulaRIA, blue daisy. — Lat. G.vul-
yuris. A perennial frame plant, common in France, about five
inches high, and blows a blue flower in -Tune and July. Glo-
uci.aria, three tooth-leaved. — Lat. G. alypv.m. A green-house
shrub from Montpelier, one or two feet high, and blows a blue
flower in March and April. Propagated like the wedge-leaved
globularia.
GOLDEN ROD. — Lat. Solidago sempervirens. A hardy per-
ennial from North America. About four feet high, and blows,
towards the end of autumn, a yellow flower. Propagated by
separating its roots in the autumn and in February : also by
sowing seed in the autumn.
GOLDY LOCKS, the flax-leaved.— -Lat. Chrysocoma lynosiris.
A perennial plant common in France, which grows to the height
of eighteen inches, and blows a yellow flower in September and
October. Propagated by sowing in a hot-bed, or a bed prepared
for that purpose, and transplanting when fit. It likes light soil
and a sunny situation.
HAWK- WEED, ivood. — Lat. Hieracium sylvaticum. A hardy
perennial plant, common in England, about a foot high, and blows
a yellow flower in June and July. Hawk-weed, endive-leaved.
Lat. Hieracium intybaceitm. A hardy perennial plant from the
Alps, about two feet high, and blows a yellow flower in July and
August. Piopagated by the seed as well as by suckers. It will
do well in any soil, but prefers a dry one. Hawk-weed, the
dummy. — Lat. Hieracium ylutinosum. An annual of the south
of Europe. Should be sown in the open ground, and it blows a
yellow flower in June and July. Is not particular as to soil. — See
Crepis also.
HELLEBORE, black,— Lat. Helleborus nigcr—ov Christmas
2S6 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
Hose. White, single. Blows a flower about the size of half-a-
crown. Leaves small, sawed, oval. Plant takes its name from
its black tuberous root. Blows in open borders at Christmas and
January. It will grow well in pure air, and situation moderately
moist and soil not manured. The flower first opens white, and
often becomes pure green. Part roots in autumn. Grows eight
or ten inches high. — Helleborus Hyemalis — (Winter Aconite). —
See Aconite.
HENBANE, yolden-floivered. — Lat. Hyoscyamus aureus.
Flowers most part of the summer, but never ripens seeds in Eng-
land. Should be kept in pots and sheltered in winter. A hand-
some light yellow flower, with dark purple at bottom of the petals ;
leaves jagged and hairy. Propagate by cuttings planted in pots,
stood in a shady border about August or beginning of September.
Grows twenty inches in height, and lasts four years.
HOLLYHOCK, Chinese. — Lat. Althcea rosea. A hardy bien-
nial plant from China, about six or eight feet high, and blows,
from July till September, a flower that is red, pink, white, or a
yellowish colour. Propagated by sowing seed in the open earth,
about the end of June or July. They may be transplanted in a
month after they come up. Do not, generally, blow the first year.
Like good substantial mould, and a warm situation. The common
hollyhock of the gardens, and which is ranked amongst biennial
plants, will last much longer than two years ; but, after the fourth,
is not so fine. It requires good rich mould, and will then come
to the height of ten or twelve feet ; is of almost all colours, blows
abundantly, and is easily raised from the seed, but its great height
and robustness mark it out for a shrubbery, rather than a border
plant. Keep it staked, or towards autumn, the high winds, assist-
ing its own weight, will tear it about sadly, and it does much mis-
chief often in its fall.
HONEY-SUCKLE, French. — Lat. Hedysarum coronarium. A
hardy biennial plant, originally from Spain and the south of France,
about two feet high, and has a red flower in July and August.
Propagated by sowing seed in the spring, in light garden mould,
and transplanting the plants into the place where they are to grow,
in the autumn.
HONESTY, or moon-wort. — Lat. Lunaria annua. A hardy
annual plant of Provence, growing two or three feet high, and
blowing a flower of a reddish violet, or blue colour, in June and
VII.] LIST OF PLO'.VERS. 28/
.July. When in bloom it adds to the ornament of gardens, and
in winter its hunches of fruit produce a singular effect in parlours,
where it is often kept. Propagated by seed sowed in open earth,
a^- soon :is ripe, and in a sunny situation. It does not blow till
the second vear, but afterwards sows itself.
HOP, common. — Lat. ilinimlus Li/pulus. A hardy perennial
plant, common in England. Blows a green flower from June till
Atfgmt. Propagated by seed or separating the roots. Likes a
deep loamy soil. Its flower does not recommend it to the florist ;
but its large and handsome clusters of fruit, and its general hand-
some and luxuriant growth, fit it well for an ornamental climber,
either to run up single stakes given it for the purpose, or to climb
over arbors, or through the branches of trees, where it makes a
verv prettv show indeed. As to its other uses see Hop, in Chap-
ter V.
HOUSE-LEEK, mountain. — Lat. Sempei'vivum. A hardv per-
ennial from Switzerland. Five or eight inches high, and blows
a purple flower in June and July. Propagated by its suckers. As
it grows naturally in dry and rocky places, and on the tops of
houses, it is necessary, when planting it in pots, to put at the
bottom a good deal of dry rubbish and old plaster.
HYACINTH. — Lat. Htjcuinthus Orient alls. There are now
two thousand varieties of this beautiful bulb distinguished bv the
Dutch florists. It was originally from the Levant, but, bv the
eare and cultivation bestowed on it bv the florists of Haarlem, and
other places of Holland, the oriental plant is infinitely surpassed
bv those of the north. To procure fresh varieties, it is necessary
to sow the seed ; and to propagate from roots alreadv produced,
vou take the offsets and bring these forward to flower ; but, of
the sowing I shall speak fully at the end of this article. I will
now relate how to proceed with bulbs already obtained and old
enough to flower. Begin by marking out the sized bed that vou
wish to have, placing stoutish pegs at each comer, and in two or
three places along the sides and ends ; dig out the earth to twelve
inches deep, then put in one of the three composts that 1 shall
enumerate below, enough to fill the square up to within two inches
of the rest of the ground ; make the surface as even as a die ;
mark out with a small line a set of lines lengthwavs of vour bed,
and not more than six inches apart ; do the same then across the
bed, observing to let the lines be at the same distance from one
2SS SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
another as the last are ; then plant a bulb at every place where
the lines intersect each other, taking especial care to let the top
of the bulb be even with the earth, and order them so as to have
no two of the same colour coming next one another. Then bring
more compost, and fill up the two inches that you have yet to
make good to bring the bed up to be even with the rest of the
ground ; and go on filling till you have brought it to be two in-
ches above the rest of the ground. But, I should here observe,
that, as this ground will settle down, and perhaps bury the bulbs
too deep, it is proper to dig out the bed and put in the mould
in which the bulbs are set, a week or ten days previous to set-
ting them ; and this gives time for that settling which always
takes place. Do nothing after you have planted (except rake a
little now-and-then) till winter, and then, when you expect frosts
such as would penetrate two or three inches, or so, bring forth
your straw, or whatever else you have, and cover over the whole
bed effectually, excepting at times when you are pretty certain of
no frost. When the season for frosts is over, of course you re-
move all paraphernalia for guarding against that element ; but
vou then have others: cold winds, snows, and even quickly after
these, the sun itself. Therefore, as soon as you have removed
the straw, place hoops across the bed, or a frame of wood con-
sisting of upright stakes driven into the ground, with bending
cross-pieces going over from one to the other, in the fashion of a
bedstead ; and on these throw canvass, or other light stuff, when
either cold winds or snows prevail, or (when the plants are in
blossom) when the sun shines out too much on them. The flowers
will appear in March and April, and, though the plant is hardy,
and even its flowers care not for snow or frost, yet, if you permit
the sun to come and thaw this on them, they will not last half
the time that they would otherwise do. When the plants are in
blossom, such as have not strong stalks should have small sticks
put in on the side of them, to which these stalks should be tied.
Such plants as are destined to bear seed, should be left to have the
full influence of the sun, and should remain in the bed till the
seed-pod turns quite yellow, and begins to split ; but those that
are not to bear seed, should be taken up as soon as their leaves
turn yellow. Choose a dry day, and take them up cautiously, so
as not to damage their offsets ; then lay them pretty close to one
another, on the bed, and cover them over with earth to an inch
VII.] UsT OF FLOWERS. 2S9
thick, and in a fortnight they will he in a fit state to he cleared
of dirt, dead leaves and offsets, and to be put by in a dry but aiiy
place, where they remain till the autumn. The composts used in
flowering bulbous roots are, either, 1. One half heath-mould, a
fourth part river Band, and a fourth part well-rotted cow-dung ;
or, 2. Two thirds sand, and one third well-consumed /cares ; or, 3.
One third river sand, one third fresh earth, one fourth rotten
cow-dung, and the rest leaf mould. These must he prepared a
twelvemonth hefore they are used ; kept in the air, and frequently
turned, or it is impossible that the different materials should he
properly incorporated one with the other. To procure fresh varie-
ties, sow well -ripened seed from a strong, handsome, and semi-
double plant. Choose a well-protected place, make a nice bed of
good compost, and sow in drills five inches apart, in the month of
September. In the severe frosts, cover over the young plants,
and keep grass and weeds from growing amongst them. Cover
with clean straw, or thatch. When, in the following summer, the
plants die down, hoe between them and give them an inch or so
thick of covering of your compost ; and protect them again the
next winter. Same treatment for the following summer, and
then, in the fourth, they may be taken up and treated as plants
for flowering. — In water-glasses, the hyacinth makes a very agree-
able show in the house during the most dismal part of the winter.
Get blue glasses, as more congenial to the roots than white ones,
fill them with rain-water, with a few grains of salt in each, and
put in enough water to come up the bulb about the fourth part of
an inch. Change the water carefully every week, and place the
plants in the lightest and most airy part of the room, or green-
house, in which you keep them. Plant hyacinths in tiie flower-
borders in the manner directed for tulips.
HEPATJCA, anemone, or noble liver- wort. — Lat. Anemone
hepatica. A perennial plant, which is found in great abundance
near Castelaue and De Grasse, and in shady places in the
southern provinces of France. The flower is blue, violet, red, or
white, and appears in February and March, and, sometimes, in
January. Propagated by dividing the roots and by sowing the
seeds. It likes earth that is light, rich, and warm, and rather
dry than moist.
IPOMEA, scarlet-fiOivered.— Loit. Ipomea coccinea. A West
India plant ; annual, and a climber. It grows to the height of
U
290 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
seven or eight feet, and in July, and on to September, blows a
beautiful little bell- shaped scarlet flower. Give it a good, but
rather light, soil ; and propagate by sowing in pots in a hot-bed,
not many seeds in a pot, so that each plant may be taken out
with a ball of earth to its roots. It is considered a green -house
plant ; but, if brought on in a hot-bed of moderate heat, and
planted out near the end of May in a good situation, will do very
well in the open air in England,
IX I A. — Lat. lxia bulbocodium. A frame plant of Narbonne
and the island of Corsica ; a small bulbous root, and blows a
violet, purple, or white flower, in March and April. Propagated
from offsets. Bending-stai.ked. — Lat. /. flexuosa. Pretty
bunch of flowers, purplish, with a deep purple spot at the
base. Flowers in April and May ; growing ten inches high.
Very slender stalk. The Ixias and the Gladiolus are beautiful
bulbous plants of elegant size and shape, and blowing most beau-
tiful flowers from May to July. They are generally cultivated in
stoves ; but. they may be made to grow and flower very well also
in the open air if carefully treated. Plant them in pots with a
couple of handfuls of sand at the bottom, the rest of the pot
being filled up with bog earth ; the pots should be kept out of the
reach of frost, and in as warm a situation as is convenient. The
proper time to take up these bulbs is, when the leaves are drying
up; but sometimes they are left in the ground two or three vears
to suffer the offsets to enlarge, and then these are planted out to
be fit for blowers, which will be the second year after being
parted.
IRIS, small bulbous. — Lat. Iris xiphium. A bulbous plant
from Portugal, which blows in June ; its flowers are blue, violet,
yellow, or white. It likes a light but rich soil, and requires
to be moved and its roots separated every three years.— .Iris,
yellow. — Lat. Iris pseudoacorus. Common in England at
the sides of marshy places, growing at the edge of the water,
and blowing in June; I never observed these but where the
land was stiff claw Very handsome plant, rising two feet or
more in height, and proper for the sides of ponds, or rivulets, in
gardens or pleasure-grounds. Move them in August or Sep-
tember. Iris, Persian. — Lat. Iris Persica. A little bulbous
plant of great delicacy ; grows seven or eight inches high, ami
blows a pretty, regulaily- formed, and singulaily sweet -scented
VII.] LIST OF FLOWERS. 2f)l
flower, iii March and April. If in the open ground, protect it a
little during severe frosts by a covering of litter ; l>ut its chief use
is as a potted plant to bring into the house. Plant the bulbs in
the month of October, in pots filled with a mixture of one half
sand and one half fine mould ; or put some in water-glasso, and
treat them as directed for hyacinths. Iris, dwarf. — Lat. Ma
Pitmi/ti. This plant comes from high and open situations of
Hungary; is very hardy, and blows in our borders in April. It
is a very ornamental plant when in clusters, and is easily propa-
gated by parting its roots, which are bulbous. Do this in
autumn. Not more than three inches high. Parti-coloured
Iris. — Lat. /. versicolor. Has a perennial root, and will thrive
in almost any soil or situation, may be increased by parting the
roots in autumn. Its stalk is unusually crooked and elbowed, by
which it is known. Flowers in June. Iris, Siberian. — Lat.
Iris Siberica. Known by the superior height of its stem and the
narrowness of its leaves. The falling petals are striped, or tinged
with blue, and the upright ones dark purple. Hardy ; thrives in
any soil and situation, but particularly in a moist one. Flowers
in June. Iris, Chalcedonian. — Lat. Iris SKsiana. From the
Levant. That large and handsome plant, so common in our gardens,
flowering so abundantly in June, and having varieties of deep blue,
pale blue, and white tinged with blue. It grows to about the same
height as the marsh iris, mentioned above, is tuberous-rooted,
should have good garden soil to grow in, and should be removed
every three years. It is, like most of the others, quite hardy, and
makes an elegant show in the gardens while in flower. This last
is the Fleur-de-lis, which figures in the arms of France ; corrupted
by us to Flower-de-luce, which name it bears commonly in some
counties of England to this day. Iris, tall. — Lat. /. ochroleuca.
This is in colour verv like the Iris pseudoacorus, but is taller ; it is
of a yellow white. Flowers in June, liking moist rich soil, and
increasing fast.
LARKSPUR, the dwarf. — Lat. Delphinuu/. A hardy annual
from Switzerland. Sow where it is to blow, either in beds, in
tufts, or in rows ; it looks best in the latter way, and, as it grows
not higher than from twelve to eighteen inches in height, its
brilliant colours of deep and light blue pink, and white, make a
great show in the front of the flower-bonier. To have a succes-
sion throughout the summer, sow every fortnight or three weeks,
U 2
292 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [OIIAP.
from the time of beginning your spring sowings, till the beginning
of June. Larkspur, tall. — Lat. Delphinum elatum. Also a
hardy annual from the mountains of Switzerland and the Alps.
Grows from four to five feet high, and blows a light blue, or deep
blue, flower in August. Propagate by sowing the seeds, either in
the spring or autumn. Not so handsome a plant as the last, by
a good deal. Perennial Larkspur.' — Lat. I). grandiflorum.
A perennial Larkspur, the leaves resembling those of the common
annual, but the flower being much larger, tinged with crimson,
double, and frequently coming a purplish white. It should be
sowed in the earlv part of April, and will then flower in July and
August. Jt grows about eighteen inches high, and is propagated
by seeds sowed in the open ground, or by parting the roots in
autumn. A hardy plant.
LACHENALIA, three-coloured. — Lat. L. tricolor. A bulb,
four inches high, blows a spike of pendulous flowers in spring; is
called tricolor, because at first flowering it has the three colours,
red, orange, and green, mixed in it. Green-house ; propagated
by offsets from the bulbs.
LAVATERA, common. — Lat. L. trhnestris. A hardy annual
plant of the south of Europe, three or four feet high, and blows a
pink or white flower from July to September. Propagated by
sowing in the open earth. Its flower is, of itself, very handsome,
and it would be a most showy border-flower, but for the great
irregularity, and the rambling disposition, of the branches, which
are numerous, and placed wide of one another. It flowers abun-
dantly, is very hardy, continues a long while in blossom, and
ripens its seed in abundance ; and the richer the soil, the finer
the plant. Sow early in the spring where the plant is to remain.
LEOPARDS-BANE.— Lat. Doronicumpantagineum. A peren-
nial plant from the south of Europe. It is about two feet high,
and, in April, it blows a yellow flower. Propagated by cuttings
and suckers. The autumn is the time for removing it.
LICHNIDEA. — Lat. Phlox divaricaia. Flower consisting of
five pale purple petals, and these flowers coming in bunches in
May. One foot high. Fit for rock-work ; propagated by cuttings
or layers.
LILY, the copper-coloured day. — Lat. Hcmcrocallis fulva. A
hardy bulbous-rooted plant, and a native of the Levant. Blows,
in July and August, a reddish yellow flower. Any soil suits itj
VII.'] LIST OF FLOWERS. 203
but most of nil a light loam. Propagated by separating the roots
when the leaves dry up; hut should be replanted again dircctlv.
Lily, scarlet marttgdn. — Lat. L. Chalcedomum. A hardy
bulbous-rooted plant from the Levant; it grows three or four
feet high, and blows a bright scarlet flower in June and July*
Propagated from offsets taken soon after flowering, which should
be planted again shortly. They like a good soil and good situation*
LlLY, purple martagon, — Lat. L. martagon. A hardy per-
ennial plant of Germany, which grows three or four feet high,
and blows, in July, a flower which is reddish or white, spotted
with purple or blackish spots. Often called the Turk's cap.
Cultivated like the scarlet. Lily, common white. — Lat. L.
candidv.m. This is sometimes called the lily of France, from the
circumstance of its being greatly used in France on festival days
and in processions ; but this is only because of its being a hand-
some and purely ivhite flower, corresponding with the national
colour. It grows three or four feet high, sending up a straight
stalk, garnished all the way up by narrow leaves, and terminated
by several large white flowers hanging in clusters, and which
appear in July. It is hardy, cares little as to what soil or
situation is given to it, and multiplies rapidlv bv an increase of its
large scaly bulbous roots, which should be separated every two or
three years, and planted again directly. If not thus often separated,
the offsets become so numerous, that, each sending up their stalk,
the plant is over-large and unsightly. It is always handsome,
however, in shrubberies, and is also handsome in the back part of
borders or in the middle of beds, when parted often, as re-
commended above. Superb Martagon. — Lat. L. svperbum.
A most beautiful plant, sending up stalks eight or ten feet high,
and blowing a great many flowers of bright reddish orange spotted
with violot. This plant recpiires bog soil; and it will then stand
our winters pretty well. It should be taken up every three or
four years to separate the offsets, by which it is propagated.
Tukk's Turban. — Lat. L. Pomponium. Bulb growing two feet
high, leaves a whitish green, and blowing in June a very pretty
pendulous flower, the points of the petals turning up, so as to
form a turban shape. The best time for moving these is when
the stalks begin to die down, and, then, after separating their
offsets, they should be planted again as soon as is convenient, for
they do not like being kept out of ground. Lily Orange.—
294 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
Lat. Lilhtm bulbiferum. Native of Austria and some parts of
Italy. Large flower with upright petals, colour of deep orange,
blowing in June and July. Grows about two feet high, and is
very ornamental in the borders. They propagate very fast by
offsets, and should be parted once every two or three years, which
may he done from the time of the stalks decaying till November.
Lily, ivhite water. — Lat. Nymphea alba. A hardy perennial
water-plant, common in England ; growing in muddy ponds, but
never, as far as I have observed it, coming spontaneously in any
but stiff clay soils. I never saw it so generally as in Lancashire,
in the neighbourhood of Preston, where there is scarcely a little
pond that is not covered over in the month of June with this very
beautiful large flower. In garden ponds it is common to see
them, and a great ornament they are to such places ; but they
must be procured first, and planted next : two operations of a
most difficult nature; for you have to dig up the root from the
bottom of a pond, perhaps two or three feet deep, and then you
have to plant it under a similar difficulty. To dig it up you
must actually go into the pond, feel for the stem of the plant,
pursue it with your hand to the ground, and then dig up as good
a ball as vou can round the roots. Suffer it to remain out of water
as short a time as possible. Some recommend the placing it in a
vase, and sinking that to the bottom of your pond; but I think
a better way is, to place your plant in an old fish-basket, full of
suitable mould, and sink that; if you can, sinking it a little way
into the earth at the bottom of the pond, as well as sinking it
to the bottom of the water. In this way the plant is not ne-
cessarily confined to so small a space as in the vase ; for when
its roots have extended to the edge of the basket, there will
be room for them to go through, and as the basket rots
awav, the plant becomes fixed in the bed of the pond.
Lily, yelloiv water. — Lat. N. lutea. Like the former in all
respects, excepting that it bears a yellow flower, which is rather
smaller than that of the white. Cultivate in just the same
manner.
LILY OF THE VALLEY.— See Solomon's Seal.
LOBELIA, acrid. — Lat. L. nrens. A hardy perennial plant of
England, about one foot high, and blows a blue flower in July
and August. Propagated bv sowing in a good earth, rather con-
sistent than light, and should be watered often. Lobelia, or
VII.] I 1ST OF FLOWERS. 29.)
cardinal's flower, — Lnt. L. eardinalis. A very handsome peren-
nial plant From Virginia. It blows a most beautiful rich icarlet
(lower in July and October, and rises to two or three feet high.
It thrives best planted out in summer in a rich (Viable soil : but
is tender enough to require some protection in winter. It is
easily increased by suckers or by seeds ; and the suckers of the
old plant should be taken oil' every autumn, or they damage it.
I ... )\ | H )\ pR| | )E.— See Sax i kkage.
LOOSE-STRIFE, yellow. — Lat. Lysimachia vulgaris. A hardy
perennial plant, common in Europe, which grows about two feet
high, and blows a yellow flower in July, August, and September.
Propagated easily by suckers or shoots, and likes moist soil.
LUNGWORT. — Lat. Pi'f/nonaria Virffiniea. Hanging bunches
of deep blue {lowers; leaves and stalks glaucus ; hardy perennial ;
blows in April and May, and grows two feet high. Propagated
by parting the roots in autumn.
LUPINE, dwarf. — Lat. Lupinus varhts. A hardy annual
plant from Xarbonne and Montpclier, which grows fifteen or
eighteen inches high, and blows a blue or red flower in July and
August. Lutine, common yellow. — Lat. L. htevs. Nearly
resembling the last, only that it blows a yellow flower in June,
July, and August. Lupine, blue. — Lat. L. hirsutus. Grows
taller than either of the others. There is a rose-coloured variety.
In other respects resembling the yellow. All of them are proper
border-flowers, and make a pretty show. Require no uncommon
care; and should be sown where they are to blow. Lupine,
perennial. — Lat. L. polyphillus. A North American plant, and
new to this country. It is hardy, is very much like the common
blue Lupine, but is a handsomer plant, and blows a spike of
blue or white flowers precisely like the Lupine, only that the
flowers stand thicker on the stalk, and the whole spike of flowers,
instead of being not more than four or five inches long, is from a
foot to a foot and a half long. A very beautiful plant. It blows in
May and June, and is propagated by sowing the seeds, which come
up freely under a hand-glass on a little heat; and the plants blow
the second year.
LYCHNIS, scarlet. — Lat. Lychnis Ckalcedohica. A hardy
perennial plant from the south of Russia, three feet high, and
blowing a starlet flower in Julv and August. Propagated by
parting the roots. They like a good light soil, rather moist than
296 SHRUBBERIES AND FEOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
dry. Lychnis, red- flowered. — Lat. L. dioica. A hardy per-
ennial plant, common in Europe, which is two or three feet high,
and blows a red flower in June and July. Propagated like the
scarlet. The former of these plants is a very handsome ornament
of either the border or the shrubbery. All the species are hand-
some, but particularly this. It should be parted early in the
spring; and, by rights, ought to be covered with litter during the
winter, for severe frost will injure it.
MAD-WORT, the rock.— See Alyssum.
MARSH-TREFOIL, common buck-bean. — Lat. Mcmjanthes
trifoUata. A hardy aquatic plant, common in some parts of
Europe, is a creeper, and blows a reddish flower in May, June,
and July. It has a pretty effect on the borders of ponds, where
it will multiply itself.
MARVEL OF PERU.— Lat. MirabUis Jajappa. Large bushy
pi ant j with a rough, black root, growing forked or long, according
as the soil is rich and deeply-moved. This root will, in very rich
gardens, deeply trenched, get to the size of a very large parsnip
in the first vear, and, by keeping it in sand in winter, housed, it
may be made a perennial, which it is not in our gardens, unless
thus carefully managed. The stalks rise (with good digging and
good manuring) to near four feet high, becoming a very branching
and large plant. The colours are, red, yellow and white, with
mixtures, red and yellow, red and white, yellow and white ; and
there are some purple sorts. The striped sorts are most
esteemed, and, therefore, the gardeners are careful to save seed
from none but such plants as have yielded mixed flowers. This
is taste, however, and as long as tastes differ, it is proper to have
all the sorts that can be procured. The yellow makes the greatest
show. The flower is borne at the end of every shoot ; and the
blowing begins in the first week in July, and continues until the
frosts set in. The only reason for the most fastidious to quarrel
with this plant is, that it blows but little in the heat of the sun,
reserving all its beauties for those who rise early enough to see
them at from five to seven o'clock in the morning. It is properly a
hardv annual, though, as said above, may be rendered perennial,
and may be sown in the open air as soon as all chance of injury
to the young plants by frost is over. April is the best time for
sowing. One plant is enough in a spot, and that not near to any
minor plant or shrub, as it effectually sucks all moisture from it
vil.] i.ist OF PLOWSRg, 297
and by its spreading branches, overlays it. The seed is a black
fleshy substance coming in a little cup that the flower falls out of
when overblown. In pots it makes a pretty show, hut it requires
so much more sustenance than is to he contained in a small vessel
of this kind, that, even in the largest, it will not blow such large
flowers as the plants in the open air; and unless the flower he a
very large one, that is, about the size of a half-crown, it is a
pitiful, mean-looking thing, whereas, in full vigour and size,
nothing is more showy at a distance, or more delicate when mi-
nutely examined, than the flower of this plant. It is a native of
the West Indies. .
MARIGOLD, common. — Lat. Calendula officinalis. A hardy
perennial plant, common in many parts of Europe, two feet high,
and blows a light vellow flower in June, July, and August.
Marigold, Small Cape. — Lat. Phirialis. A hardy annual plant,
originally from the Cape of Good Hope, one or two feet high,
blows a white flower in June, July, and August. Propagated by
seed sown where thev are to grow. Likes a light soil and sunny
situation. — Marigold, African. — Lat. Facjctes patula. A hardy
annual plant of Mexico, which blows a reddish yellow flower from
July to October. Propagated by sowing in a hot-bed, or in open
earth, if it be good and exposed to the sun, and there is no longer
fear of frosts. The plants must be planted in pots, and afterwards
in the open earth, taking care to water them frequently when
newly planted. They grow to two feet high, and often higher,
and should he kept tied to sticks or they will fall about and look
ugly. It is rather a staring flower when in blossom, and much
more fit for the front of shrubberies, and the edges of lawns, than
for borders. It is not particular as to soil.
MASTER-WORT, Great black.— Lat. Astrantia Major. A
plant of which the root is perennial, from the mountains of Togcs
and the Pyrenees. It is two feet high, and its flower is of a ra-
diated reddish or whitish colour, and blows from June to Septem-
ber. Any soil and any situation except shade, will do for it. Pro-
pagated by sowing the seed or by dividing the roots in the autumn,
and it often sows itself. It is a hardv plant.
MESEMBRYANTHEMUM.— Lat. M. tricolor. There are
nearly two hundred sorts of this plant, many of them very handsome
and deserving of cultivation. They arc nearly all fleshy-leaved, and,
therefore, like all the kind, require but little water till they begin to
298 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
put forth shoots for flowering, and a very poor sandy or gravelly
soil. This one grows very near the ground, and, from July to
November, blows elegant flowers, white at the base, and of a fine
rose colour towards the upper part of the petals. There is also
the Violet-coloured, Lat. M. violaceum; the Two-coloured,
Lat. M. bicolor; the Showy, Lat. M. spectabile; and many other
equally worthy of a place in the green-house, for it does require a
green-house to keep them in. Propagate these plants, by taking
off small bits of their shoots, which, after remaining a few hours to
suffer the wound to drv, should be planted under a hand-glass in
sandy loam. They will take immediately.
MIGNONETTE.— Lat. Reseda odorata. An Egyptian plant,
which is perennial in its native country, but which, with us, is no
more than an exceedingly sweet-scented annual. It should be
sowed thinly, and two or three plants are enough in one place.
Being kept in a green-house, it may be made to live through two
or three winters, when it becomes woody, and resembles the form
and size that it attains in its native country. Propagated by
seed, which it ripens abundantly in almost any situation, and it
blows all through the summer, a little flower of greenish hue.
MICHAELMAS DAISY.— Lat. Aster tradescanll A very
late, very hardy, and very showy perennial plant, liking moist
situations best, growing to between two and three feet high, and
bearing an immense number of blossoms in September, October,
and November, something like the common daisv, only larger.
Propagated by sowing the seed, or more easily, by parting the
roots in spring. TheSnowY. — Lat. A. spectabilis. Growstwo feet
high, blows a verv pretty blue flower resembling the forementioned
in form and statue. Makes a very pretty show. Catesby's. —
Lat. A. grandiflorvs. Grows two feet high, blows, in October
and November, a handsome yellow flower, smelling of citron ; the
flower being larger than those of the two former. They ail like
the same sort of soil.
MONKEY-FLOWER.— Lat. Mimulus hdcns. A very pretty
little hardy perennial, not difficult as to situation, but very fond of
moist soil and situation. Propagate by cuttings put under a hand-
glass which strike soon. Grows eight inches to a foot high. M.
rose-coloured. — Lat. M. roscus. Another variety, not quite so
showy as the last, but very pretty, and to be treated in the same
way. There is also the Musk-monkey-Jlotccr, a very small variety,
VII.] LIST OF FLOWERS. 209
With downy leaves, the attraction of which is that it is a perfect
bouquet of musk. Treatment the same as for the others.
MONAHDA, Oswego tea. — Lat. M . didyma. A hardy peren-
nial from North America, growing two feet high, and blowing a
crimson flower in June, Jul v, ami August. Propagated from sucker*,
or by sowing the seed in a hot-bed in the spring, and planting
out the voting plants when they are five or six inches high. They
like a soil light, warm, and rich, and should be moved every two
or three vears. M. Canadian. — Lat. M. fistidosa. A hardy
perennial of Canada, three or four feet high, blowing a pale purple
flower in July and August. Propagated like the Oswego tea.
MONSOXTA, large-jlowered. — Lat. Monsonia speciosa. A
handsome flower ; single, opening wide, and of a light pink.
Bears great afhnity to the geranium in habit and character.
Hardy green-house plant, or, may be sheltered under frame in
winter. Propagate by cuttings plunged in tan-pit in pots. Never
ripens seed with us. Perennial, grows eight or ten inches high,
and blows in April and May.
MTLLEIN, white. — Lat. Verbascum lychnitis. A hardy an-
nual plant, common in Europe, growing three or four feet high,
and blowing a white or yellow flower in June, July, and August.
Propagated bv sowing the seed as soon as ripe, and does best in a
light, dry and sandy soil. It often sows itself. Mullein,
rusty. — See Ulattaria.
NARCISSUS.— Fr. Narcisse. There are many sorts of nar-
cissus, of which our common daffodil is one, and, I believe, the
only one that is not a native of the south of Europe. I shall
enumerate only three sorts, and shall give instructions relative to
the procuring of these by offsets, and relative to the blowing
of them in beds, in pots and in glasses. — The Paper white. —
Lat. N. papyraeeus. The Jonquil. — Lat. N. Jonquil/a.
Tbe Polyanthus Narcissus. — Lat. N. polyanthi/s. — These
are all beautiful flowers, and all sweet-scented ; but par-
ticularly the Jonquil. The first sort is reputed for its delicate
and pure white. It grows to a foot and a half high, bearing
two or three very handsome and paper- white flowers. The
second for its peculiarly sweet scent, which is enough from
onlv one plant, to perfume a whole room. It blows a yellow
flower, proceeding from a slender and elegant stalk of from ten to
300 SHltUBBERJES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
twelve inches in height. The last sort, of which there are three
varieties, the white, the white with yelloiv ciq) in the middle, and
the all yelloiv, for its abundance of flowers, which are frequently
ten or twelve in number upon each of two, three or four stems,
according as the plant is a thriving and well-managed one. The
first has a bulb about the size of a bantam hen's egg, the second
a bulb not bigger than a very small walnut, and the third a bulb
larger than a turkey's egg They are all to be had of the seeds-
men, who import them yearly from Holland; but they may be pro-
pagated here ; or, at least, those who wish to go to the trouble of
it, by parting the offsets from the mother plants in July, and plant-
ing them in a bed by themselves for a year ; by themselves, be-
cause they do not flower the first year after being parted ; or they
may also be had from the seed, by proceeding in the same manner
as for the hyacinth. The most common way, however, is to buy
of the seedsmen such bulbs as are wanted ; blow them the first year
in pots or in glasses for the house, and, the next year, plant them
out in the borders, or in beds by themselves; this latter being the
best way, because then, by making use of the proper soil, which
should be a good light hazel mould, mixed with a little perfectly
rotten cow-dung, you preserve your bulbs from degenerating so
fast as they will if turned out into the borders. Take them up
every third year, to take off the offsets, and bring these on in a bed
composed of the same mixture as that recommended for the flower-
ing bulb. In pots, use the same mixture, or put a little sand with
it ; and, in glasses, do the very same as for the Hyacinth. There
are common varieties sold by the florists for the open borders,
which manage as you do the tulip and other bulbs so planted.
NASTURTiUM, the tall. — Lat. Tropccoh/m majus. A plant
from Peru which may be trained* to the height of ten or twelve
feet, and blows an orange-coloured flower during the summer and
part of the autumn. The single-flowered sort is annual, and,
being sowed in the spring, in a light soil and exposed to the sun,
will afterwards sow itself. The double-flowered is perennial, pro-
pagated by cuttings, and kept in a house. In the winter exposed
to the sun as much as possible, and watered but little. There is a
dwarf kind which makes a pretty show in the front part of borders
or in pots. The Small-flowered, or Indian Cress. — Lat. T.
minus. Should be sowed in a hot-bed early in spring in order to
VII.] LIST OF FLOWERS. 301
have forward plants. It is very much like the former, not so
rampant, and has a purple spot in the inside of the Bower. In all
else, likes the same treatment as the former.
NETTLE, the fed dead. — Lat. Galeopsis ladanum. An annual
plant common in Europe, which grows one foot high, and blows
a pretty pink flower from July to October. Propagated by sowing
the seed in any soil. A very handsome plant.
OENOTHERA, great-flowered. — Lat. CE. grandiflora. A bien-
nial plant originally from Virginia. It is generally three or four
feet high, and blows in July, August, and September, a beautiful
yellow flower. Any soil suits it, hut it likes a moist one and a
sunny situation. Propagated by sowing the seed in a bed, but it
also sows itself. OZ. evening primrose. — Lat. (E. biennis. From
North America ; biennial; blows a fine yellow flower from Julv
to September. Likes a good garden mould, but is not very nice
as to soil ; and it should be sown in the spring in the place where
it is to blow the following year. CE. purple. — Lat. CE. purpurea.
An American annual, growing eighteen inches or two feet high,
and blowing, from June to August, abundance of purple flowers at
the ends of its numerous stalks. Sow in the open ground early
in spring, in the place where it is to blow. OZ. yellow. —
Lat. CE. serotina. A hardy biennial plant, growing two feet
high, and in Julv and August blowing a handsome yellow flower.
OZ. white. — Lat. CE. speciosa. Grows two feet high, is bien-
nial, and blows a white flower ; in other things resembling the
two forementioned plants. OZ. large-leaved. — Lat. CE. macro -
carpa. A hardy, trailing, perennial sort of OZnothera, which
blows in July and August enormous yellow flowers of four petals,
and one of the flowers of which I have found to measure four
inches across OZ. sweet. — Lat. CE. odorata. Grows two or
three feet high, is perennial, and in July and August blows a yel-
low sweet-smelling flower, rather smaller than that of the grandi-
flora.—— OZ. Lindlei/s. An annual plant, bloving in Julv and
August a purple-striped flower. Grows from one foot to eighteen
inches high, and the stalk and leaves are tinged deeply with a purple
hue. This variety should be sown in the open ground with the
spring-sown flowers. The others arc propagated either by part-
ing the roots in the autumn or by seed raised in a gentle hot-bed.
All of them are handsome and ornamental flowers, and I think
the macrocarpa one of the handsomest of border flowers; but, as
302 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
it blows near the ground, it should have a place in the front part
of the border.
ONOSMA, hairy. — Lat. O. echioides. A hardy perennial plant
from the south of Europe, about a foot high, and blows a yellow
flower in May. Propagated by seed sown in the open earth. Likes
a dry soil ; and, though hardy, likes a little covering in very severe
weather.
ORPINE, evergreen. — Lat. Sedum anacampseros. Blows in
July and August a tuft of light pink flowers. One of the succu-
lent-leaved tribe : but quite hardy, thriving well on rock-work and
old walls. Propagate by cuttings or parting roots in autumn.
Grows ten inches high.
OX-EYE, the great. — Lat. Adonis vernalis. A showy yellow
broad flower opening full to the noon-day sun early in spring.
Hardy. Propagate by parting roots or by seed. Grows four inches
high.
PALMA CHRISTI. — Lat. Ricinus communis. A tender bien-
nial plant from India, from five to seven feet high. Blows in
July and August. Propagated by seed sown in a hot-bed. When
the plants are five or six inches high, they should be planted
where they are to grow. This plant is annual in the open
ground, but, when put into a green-house, it lasts four or five
years.
PANSY, or heart's-ease, — Lat. Viola hispida. A hardy peren-
nial plant, very common in Europe, which blows a blue flower
almost the whole of the year. Pansy. — Lat. Viola gr audi flora.
A hardy perennial, common in most parts of Europe, eight or ten
inches high, and blows all the summer, a yellow and violet flower.
These are propagated by seed, which ripens abundantly, as well
as by separating their roots. Likes rich earth and partial shade.
PEA, the everlasting. — Lat. Lathyrus latifoUus. A perennial
plant from Provence. It is four or five feet high, and in July and
August blows very beautiful bunches of rose-coloured flowers.
Sow in beds and transplant to where the plants are to blow, or
sow where they are to remain, but take care to have sticks, or
lattice-work high enough to train them upon. Pka, the tuber-
ous.— Lat. L. tuberosus. A small crimson perennial pea, very
troublesome to the husbandman of the south of France, and of
Germany, where it is what the birdseed is in England. It has
creeping roots, knotty and tuberous, similar in appearance to the
VII.] LIST OF FLOWERS. 303
everlasting pea, but touch smaller. Busily propagated from roots,
but does not require leeds berc. Is only proper for parts of tbe
shrubbery, on account of its troublesome roots. Flowers from
June to August, and grows two feet high. Swkkt Pju. — Lat.
J.. Qtforahu. An annual plant from Sicily. About four or five
feet high, .mil blows a rose-coloured flower of various hues in June,
July, and August. Propagated by tbe seed sown where it is to
remain. There is another everlasting pea, the (/rand /flora, which
blows the largest flowers of any, and which is as handsome as
any, excepting that its foliage is not so luxuriant. The crown
pea, or painted lady, is very luxuriant in its growth, and, in rich
soils, blows very handsome clusters of flowers of a pale blush co-
lour. Propagate all these in the same manner.
PI2NTSTEMON, narrow-leaved. — Lat. P. angnstifolia. A
pretty little hardy perennial, growing two feet high, and blowing
a flower something like the foxglove in shape, but more delicate
in colour, in September and October. Propagate by dividing the
roots in autumn.
PETUNIA. — Lat. P. nyctaginiflora. A very handsome peren-
nial plant, bearing abundance of beautiful white flowers from May
till October. It is a very fine border flower, but, in severe winters,
must be covered. It does extremely well in pots, and some should,
by all means be potted and housed every autumn to redouble the
chance of preserving the stock. Propagate by cuttings placed
under a hand-glass, where they will soon strike ; or make it an
annual by sowing seeds in the spring of the year.
PHLOX, smooth, or bastard lychnis. — Lat. P. glaberrima. A
hardy perennial plant, originally from North America, (bows
about two feet high, and blows a prettv purple flower in June,
July, and August. Propagated by dividing the roots in the au-
tumn and in February.
PINK, China or Indian.— Lat. Diant/ius Clti/iaisis. A hardv
biennial plant of China, one foot high, blowing a bright red flower
in July. Propagated from seed, from layers, and by dividing the
roots, which like a light but good soil, dry rather than wet, and a
sunny situation. It is generally cultivated in our gardens as an
annual ; as it blows the first year, and will not survive the winter
unless protected from frost. A very pretty border flower ; but
should be grown in beds, or largish clumps. Pink, the garden .
— Lat. D. kortensis. This is supposed to be a variety of the car-
304 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [cHAP.
nation. Its origin is common in England and all over Europe.
There are many pretty varieties, and these are on the increase
every year in England, the manufacturing people of the north
bestowing vast pains in propagating and cultivating them. The
plant is smaller in every particular than the carnation, hut is its
miniature. There are varieties double and single, red, white, and
laced. It grows in tufts and sends up many stalks, each bearing
a flower; but these tufts should not be suffered to remain unparted
more than one year. Propagate by layers, pipings or seed, just
as with the carnation, only that, the pink being much the hardier
of the two, you need not bestow the same pains upon it that you
must on the carnation. Pipings will strike in the open ground,
without any hand-glass over them, but you are surer to succeed
by using the glass, and in the manner directed for propagating
carnations in the open ground. No plant of this kind should be
suffered to blow more than twelve flowers. All above that num-
ber should be cut off as they appear in the bud. Any soil almost
suits it. — See Sweet-William. — Lat. D.Barbatus.
POLYANTHUS. — Lat. Primula elatior. An indigenous plant
which has been brought to great perfection by the florists. It
blows in March and April, flowers of various colours, red, brown,
vellow, purple, and variegated ; the flower stem should rise above
the foliage, should be perfectly erect, and send out from five to
seven small foot-stalks each to be terminated by a flower. Pro-
pagate bv seed, or bv parting the roots, which latter should he
done every year, or the plants are sure to dwindle away and ulti-
mately die. The Polyanthus likes a shady situation, moist ground,
and manuring of neats' dung ; but the soil mentioned under the
head "Auricula" suits it well. It is well to have some always in
pots the same as those for the Auricula, and by these means you
procure an early show in the green-house, and can the more
readily and surely save the seeds of such plants as you most ad-
mire. In the seed-bed, you have only to follow the instructions
given for the management of the Auricula bed.
POPPY, red, or com rose. — Lat. Papaver rhwas. A hardy
annual plant about two feet high, and its flower red. Blows in June
and July, and is propagated by sowing the seed in a light and rich
earth; afterwards they sow themselves. Poppy, garde*, Lat.
P. somnifennn. This sort, grows larger than the last, has several
varieties, double and single, of most colours excepting blue. It is
VII.] J. 1ST OF FLOWERS. 305
easy to propagate from the seed, but, unless great variety be re-
quired, hardly worthy of' a place in the Bower border. This sort
it is that yields opium. Prefers good deep soil; hut they are not
particular in this matter. Pori'Y, large-flowered prickly. — Lat.
Argemone grandiflora. Hardy annual plant, growing from two
to three feet high, and blowing, in July and August, a very large
white flower of great beautv. The leaves of this plant are also
ornamental, or, at least, very curious, being like that of thistle in
some respects. Propagate by seed sown in spring.
PCEOXV, hairy-leaved. — Lat. Poeonia hirsuta. Is a hardy
perennial plant from the south of Fiance, which blows a purple
flower in June. Pu:ony, common red. — Lat. P. roseo officina-
lis. A hardy perennial from Spain and the south of France, and
blows earlv in the spring. Propagated by separating the roots in
the autumn and the spring. Not particular as to soil or situation.
Two or three feet in height, and makes a very fine show when
planted in borders bounded by green- sward.
POTEXTILLA. — Lat. P. napalensis. A very pretty little
plant, with a trailing leaf and stalk ; blowing a peach-blossom
flower in June, July, and August, grows six inches high. Peren-
nial ; propagated by parting the roots in spring and autumn, and
it is quite hardy.
PRIMROSE. — Lat. Primula vulgaris. That very pretty early-
flowering native plant which we find all over England by the side
of shady lanes, and in coppices of the winter-cutting, bearing
numerous bright vellow flowers, each upon a foot stalk of two or
three inches in length. By taking the pains, you may procure
abundance of its seed, and propagate it as you would the Auri-
cula, which see. Or you may transplant into your garden, at
Michaelmas, any number of the plants, which will make a beauti-
ful show in the earlv spring months. The situation and soil
should be those for the Polyanthus ; that is, shady as to situation,
and moist as to soil.
RAXCXCULUS. — Lat. R. Asiafici/s. A native of the Levant.
It is a tuberous -rooted plant, greatly ornamental, and deservedly
a choice florist's flower. It blows early in the spring, flowers
single, semi-double or double, and of almost every colour, but the
scarlet, being the most admired, is the most usual. It is propa-
gated either by offsets from the tubers, or l>\ seed ; and both very
much in the *ame way as in the case of the anemone. By seed.
x
300 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
Sow in January, under a frame and light, but take care to have
the earth, to a foot and a half deep, taken out previously and well
frosted, and, when thawed again, put it back into the frame.
This destroys all vermin. Make it fine, and sow your seeds in
very shallow drills four inches apart, covering the seed in the
slightest possible manner. I should, perhaps, have first said, that
the seed should be saved from a semi-double plant, the stem of
which is strong and high, the Mowers large, thick and round, and
of brilliant colour ; and also that it should be gathered in a dry
time, scraped off from the stalk by patiently using your finger-
nails for the work, and kept in a dry, though airy, place till the
time for sowing. Let your seed-bed be in an eastern aspect, the
one best suited to the ranunculus whether a seedling or a flower-
ing plant ; water with a fine-rosed watering-pot, so as to keep up
a continual moisture, and, when the plants are up, give plenty of
air ; remove the light from the frame, and cover over with hurdles
or a thick covering of netting. Do not move these young plants
till their leaves are perfectly dead, and then do as with young
anemones. By offsets. The time of planting out your old root
is precisely that directed as the proper time for planting out the
anemone ; and, it is at the time of planting that you part the
offsets from the mother-roots. They are easily discerned, each
complete root having a bud enveloped, as it were, in a greyish
down ; the under part being composed of several dark-brown
claws, for the most part tending inwards at their points. These
look as if perfectly dead, but, a few days under ground plumps
them up to a considerable size \ and it is even, with some, the
practice to put the roots into a basin of water a few hours pre-
vious to planting them, a practice of very doubtful utility. The
offsets that you take off are just as fit for blowers as the mother-
roots ; they do not, like the hyacinth and tulip, require nursery
beds to bring them into flowering in a course of years ; therefore,
there are no instructions necessary further as to the propagating
by offsets. But, as to general cultivation, something must be said.
The florists invariably plant them in beds in the manner described
under the head Hyacinth, except that they are not to be planted
at any more or less than an inch and a half under ground ; but
they flourish also either in clumps in the border, or in pots in the
green-house. In either of these cases, the soil that the ranunculus
likes is a good fresh, strong, rich loamy one j or, if you prepare
VI r.] LIST OF FLOWI-RS. .307
soil, let it he fresh loam with a manuring of well-rotted horse or
cow-dung. The scarlet-turban is the most showy variety, and
produces a most brilliant effect in a bed ; ami, when thus planted,
it is well worth the while to take all the precautions necessary to
bring forward the plants well through the winter, and to guard
their blossoms against too much wet or sun in the spring. To
do this, cover in winter, and shade and water in the spring, as
you do in the hyacinth bed, When you plant in pots, take care
that the pots he good deep ones; such as are used commonly for
the auricula, drain them well with pot-sherds, but give frecment
waterings in dry weather, or in such small masses, the earth soon
burns, aud you lose your blossom-buds, if not the plant. About
the end of June your plants will be dying down, and then is the
time to take them up, cut off the fibres of the roots and pull off
the leaf-stalks ; and put away the roots, well freed from dirt.
This root and the anemone take no harm from remaining twelve
months out of ground.
ROCKET, or dame's violet. — Lat. Hesperis matronalis. A
biennial plant from Italy which grows a foot and a half high,
sending up many stalks crowned by double fragrant flowers.
Varieties, red, purple, and white ; and blows from May to August.
Propagated by parting the roots in autumn ; or by cuttings of the
stalks of the flowers, which, being cut into convenient lengths,
you make three splits in the end of each, of about half an inch
up ; force the split end into the ground, and they will readily take
root if you put a hand-glass over them, and place them where
none but the morning sun can get to them. Better still to strike
them under a propagation-glass in a gentle hot-bed. There are
very few prettier, and still fewer sweeter flowers than the double
rocket ; but it i^ said by theorists not to thrive near large cities.
1 think that the smoke of London or Manchester is incompatible
with the health of anything animal or vegetable; but I do not
think smoke prejudicial to this plant in particular, for 1 have seen
it remarkably fine in the neighbourhood of London, but never have
I seen it so fine as in the vicinity of the smoky towns of the north
of England, where it grows most freely in a stiff mould.
RING FLOWER. — Lat. Anacyclus valentmus. An annual
plant from the south of France, about one foot high and the flower
of a yellow colour, which appears in June and July. It is raised
x 2
SOS SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
from seed sowed where it is to bloom, and does well in good earth
that is warm and light.
ROSE CAMPION, smooth -leaved. — Lac. Agrostemma cal'u -osa.
A hardy annual plant of the south of France, eight or nine inches
high, and blows a pink flower in July and August.
RUDBECKIA, the purple. — Lat. U. purpurea. Outermost
petals narrow, long, and pendulous, resembling narrow red tape.
Native of the warm climate of Virginia ; but will do in an open
border. It is well to shelter a plant or two in a hot-bed frame
during winter, lest those that are left out should be lulled. Flowers
in July. Seeds do not ripen with us, so the only way to propa-
gate is by parting roots. Leaf long, sawed at edge. Perennial,
and grows three feet high. Rudbeckia, the hairy. — Lat. R.
hirta. Large rich single yellow flower. The plant grows two
feet high, flowers in July and August. Hardy perennial, propa-
gated by parting the roots in autumn.
RUSH, the flowering .— Lat. Butomus umbellatus. A perennial,
found in the borders of rivers and in the marshes in England and
other parts of Europe. Grows three feet high, blowing in July
a bunch of pretty large red flowers. It is a handsome plant, and
well suited to damp or swampy places, or to the sides of ponds or
rivers. Propagated by dividing the roots.
SAGE, smooth-leaved. — Lat. Salvia sptendens. A beautiful
pendulous scarlet flower, coming at the ends of the branches of a
plant that is tolerably elegant of itself, and which will grow to the
height of five or six feet. — S. cardinalis. A variety growing and
blowing very much like the former ; indeed, in which there is no
difference, excepting that the leaf of this one is thick and downy,
like that of the common sage of the gardens, and that the other
has smooth dark-green shining leaves. Both are perennial, but
both require shelter in the winter. These plants are exceedingly
handsome, and ought to be had in every garden. Propagate by
parting the roots in spring or autumn.
SAFFRON.— See CoixHrcuu.
SALVIA.— See Sage.
SAND- WORT, majorca. — Lat. Arenaria balearica. A hardy
perennial plant from Corsica, about two inches high, and blows a
white flower in May and June. Propagated by seed, or separat-
ing the roots. Likes a sandy and warm soil, and a southern aspect.
vji.J i ifi oj i low Kits. :j09
SAXIFRAGE, the golden. — Lat, ChryeoepUnkm atterm 'folium.
An inhabitant of Prance and many other parts (if Europe. It is
five or six inches high, and blows a yellow flower in April. Pro-
pagated by dividing the roots in October, and likes a shaded and
moist situation, and is well suited to ornament the edges of water.
A perennial plant. SAXIFRAGE, thick-leaved. — Lat. Sojif'ruya,
crassi folia. A hardy perennial plant originally from Siberia, whicli
blows a pink flower in March and April. >*\x\vn\uv., palmate.
— Lat. S.paimata. A perennial plant common in France and
England, blows a white flower in April and May. A foot high.
SaxIFKAOB, hairy. — Lat. 8. Itirsuta. A perennial frame
plant, about eight or ten inches high, blows a white flower spotted
with red in May. From France and the Pyrenees. Propagated
by separating the roots. Xot particular as to soil, hut likes a
shady situation. — S. vmbrosa. The little common plant called
London prior, which grows much like the house-leek, but sends
up slender stalks a foot high, with abundance of pretty little
flowers at the summits. Quite hardy, and perennial. Propagate
by parting the roots in spring or autumn, and plant in almost any
soil. This plant is fit for any borders or any rock-work.
SCABIOUS, sn-eet. — Lat. Seabiosa atropwrpurea. A hardy
biennial plant, originally from India. About two feet high, and
blows, in August and September, a deep violet- coloured flower.
Scabious, devil's bit.— Lat. S. si/rcis-a. A hardy native pe-
rennial plant, which blows from August to September. Propa-
gated by seed sown in any border. Varieties, deep purple, flesh-
coloured, and white.
SCOKZEXLRA, tangier. — Lat. 8. tingitana, A larger and
higher plant, with glaucus leaf; hut flower very much resembling
our common dandelion, or rather marigold. Annual, hardy, likes
a moderately dry soil. Sow with other annuals.
SI DA, broad-leaved.- -Lat. S. abidilon. An annual stove plant,
from India. Four feet high, and blows a yellow flower in June,
July, and August. Propagated by seed sowed in a hot-bed, and
afterwards transplanting the young plants where thev are to re-
main.
SILPHIUM, jagged-leaved. — Lat. 8, lactmaium, A hardy
perennial, three or four feet high, originally from North Ame-
rica, and blows a yellow flower in July, August, and September.
Suriin'M. three-leaved. — Lat. >'. trifoliatum, A hardv
310 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
•perennial plant of North America, about eight feet high, and
blows a yellow flower in August and September. Propagated
by seed sown in the open earth, or by separating the roots in the
autumn.
S1SYRINCHJUM.— Lat. S. iridoides. Blue flower witb light
yellow heart, leaves resembling the Iris. Rather tender tuberous
plant, blowing in the border from May to the end of July. Pretty
in green- house. Propagate by seeds easily, or by parting bulbs
in autumn. Same soil as for bulbs, and an eastern border.
SNAP-DRAGON, common. — Lat. Antirrhinum majus. A
perennial plant, common in uncultivated places, and on walls, in
England. Blows in June, July, and August, its flowers are pur-
ple, red, or white. Snap-dragon, small. — Lat. A. orenticum.
An annual plant, common in Europe, growing about a foot and a
half high, and blowing a reddisb, or wbite, flower, with spots of
yellow, in July. Propagated by seed, sown in a border, and the
plants afterwards planted, where they are to remain. Both of
these are handsome border flowers, but the latter is rather too
small to make any show. The former, on the contrary, is very
showy, very hardy, and remains a long time in flower. Sowed on
the tops of old buildings, old walls, or heaps of dry rubbish, it
thrives almost as well, and blows quite as well, as in the best-
prepared borders.
SNOW-DROP. — Lat. Galanthus nivalis. A native bulbous-
rooted plant, which, in January and February, blows a white
flower, and is seven or eight inches high. There is, also, a double
sort. Snow-drop, summer. — Lat. Leucojum cestivum. A
native plant, which blows a white flower in the beginning of
summer. Bulbous, and propagated by offsets. Likes a moist
soil. Snow-flake. — Lat. Leucojum vernwn. Differs essen-
tially from the Galanthus or Snow- drop, although they resemble
one another. The Snow-flake does not increase so fast as the
snow-drop, and is therefore scarcer. It does not flower so soon
by a month as the snow-drop; but its blossoms are much larger
and more fragrant. Situation a north-east border, soil mixture
of loam and bog-earth. Propagate by offsets. Height seven
inches.
SOAPWORT, common. — Lat. Saponaria officinalis. A hardy
perennial plant, about two feet high, and very common in Eng-
land. Blow*, in July, red <>r white Bowers, and there are some
VII.] I Iff ok FL0WBR8. 31 1
double. Propagated by Iherunners. Likes any soil or situation.
Soapwort, basil. — Lat. Saponaria Ochymoides. Blowa in
May and June a profusion of small pink flowers. Hardy, tluives
on rock-work, on walla, or in borders ; grows two feet high ; is
propagated by slips or cuttings.
SOLOMON'S-SEALj angular. — Lat. Convallariapolffgonahtm.
A hardy perennial common in England and many parts of Europe,
which blows a whitish flower in May and June, and rises to about
eighteen inches high. Propagated by dividing the roots in the
tall. Not particular as to soil, but it likes a shady situation, and
will even succeed under trees. Soj.omon'-seal, or Lily of the
Valley.— Lat. Convallaria majalis. Like the former, it will succeed
under the drip of trees. A native perennial plant, with large
oblong leaves rising from the root ; sending up a stalk eight inches
high, which bears from six to twelve white pendent sweet-smell-
ing flowers in May and June. Propagated by dividing the roots
in the fall. It likes a moist situation ; and will grow under the
drip of high trees and underwood.
SOLDANELLA, Alpine.— Lat. Soldanella. A perennial plant
from Switzerland, three or four inches high, and blows, in March
and April, a blue, reddish, or, sometimes, white little bell-shaped
flower. Propagated by separating the roots. Likes good heath
mould, with a fourth part of maiden earth. Should be protected
from hard frosts.
SPIDER-WORT, Virginian— Lat. Tradescantia Virginiana.
A perennial plant, originally from Virginia. It is about a foot
high, and blows, from June till October, a bluish violet-coloured
flower. There are some, also, with white flowers. It flourishes
in any soil or situation. Propagated by separating the roots in
March and October.
SQUILL, Italian. — Lat. Scilla Italica. A hardy bulbous-
rooted plant, common about the environs of Nice. It is about
eight or ten inches high, and blows a blue flower in March and
April. Propagated by its offsets. Likes fresh sandy earth, or a
mixture of light -oil and sea sand.
STAR OF BETHLEHEM, yellow. — Lat. Omit/mgahnn lu-
team. A bulbous-rooted plant, common in England, and blows a
yellow Bower in March, and is three or four inches high. Propa-
gated by separating the offsets in the autumn. Likes rather moist
earth and shaded situation. Star of Bethlfhem, spiked. —
312 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
Lat. O. Pyrenaicum. A hardy perennial plant, originally from the
Pyrenees, one or two feet high, and blows a yellow flower in May
and June.- — Star of Bethlehem, common. — Lat. 0. umbel-
latum. A hardy perennial plant of England, from six to nine
inches high, and blows a white flower in May and June. Both
sorts propagated by the offsets, taken from the plants in the
autumn, and planted directly.
STOCK, the Brompton. — Lat. Cheiranthus coccineus. The
stock, if not a native of England, is completely naturalized, and
has been cultivated here with greater success, perhaps, than in
any other country. There are four distinct sorts that I shall
mention, because these are all of them most deserving of being
cultivated in the flower-garden, where they produce show, odour,
and durability, surpassed by none. The Brompton stock grows to
about two feet high when flourishing, has long hoary leaves,
narrow, and rather waved at the edges, and, above the foliage,
there rises a stalk studded round thickly with scarlet double
flowers each as large as a small rose, and which appear in Mav
and June. This plant is a biennial, and should therefore be sown
in the spring or summer, and treated accordingly; but as it
suffers from the frosts of winter, when brought on too forward
the first summer, it is best not to sow till the middle or latter
end of June. Raise the plants in a frame, and keep them
thinned out, in order that, though not large when winter comes
on, they mav still not be weak. Plant out the voung plants in
the fall, and, if the winter be very severe, and you have the means
of doing it, cover them with litter during such severity; as,
though frosts must be very hard indeed to kill them, yet a severe
winter will spoil their blossom-buds and cause them to blow but
little, and single. Stock, Queens. — Lat. C. incanus. This is
also a biennial ; grows a foot or more high, producing white, red,
or purple double flowers in May and June ; but these come on
innumerable branches which this stock sends out from its main
stulk on each side. Leaf like the former; and it is cultivated
like the former. Stock, ten-week. — Lat. C. annuus (or, qua-
rantai/i, .forty-day), is a very handsome and sweet little annual
plant, blowing from May to September or October. It grows
from twelve to eighteen inches high, with greyish coloured leaves,
branches out a little, and, if from good seed, bears double flowers,
red, white, or purple J e<|ual to either of the preceding in odour,
VII.] LIST OF PLOWKMU 313
and not far surpassed by either in appearance. Sow early in
Marti), or in February, on a hot-bed and under a frame or hand-
glass. Take care to keep the plants thinned out so as not to let
them get weak, and give plenty of air, especially in the middle of
the day. Early in April plant them out where they are to blow,
and let this he in the front part of the flower-borders ; put in four
or five plants in a clump, or more, so that, when you find their
flower-buds appearing, you can pull up those plants that are
showing for single flowers, except one, which you should always
leave for seed. The red is by far the most showy variety. Sow
again in May, and the plants of this sowing will, when planted
out, keep up a succession of flowering till October. Stock,
wttU-flower leaved. — Lat. C. GracuSt Also an annual, rising
to ten or twelve inches high, having leaves unlike all the
former, of a darkish shining green, and being perfectly smooth.
Blows, in May and June, double or single flowers, white, red, or
violet. To be treated like the ten-week stock. All these plants
bear their seed on plants that blow single flowers, and, to make
sure of saving seed that .shall produce double flowers, the seed
plant should stand amidst those that are blowing double. The
double -flowering ones show themselves very early ; their buds are
much larger and rounder than the single, and appear to be burst-
ing when the single have no such appearance. Stock, the
Indian. — Lat. C. maritimvs. A very pretty little annual. Grows
about eight inches high, and blows, in .June and July, a very
small but very showy little lilac, red, or white flower. This plant is
of itself so small, that it should stand in thick tufts, or thicklv in
a line : and, when the flowers are going off, the tops of the
plants may be cut off with a pair of shears, and will then sprout
out again and blow afresh. The best way, however, is to sow for
a succession ; beginning by a sowing in March, then sow again in
April, May, and June, in the places where the plants are to stand
and blow. A pretty little flower.
STRAWBERRY-BUTE, tlender-branched. — Lat. BRIum
Vtrgatvm. An annual plant of France and the greater part of
Europe, which grows one or two feet high, and blows from May to
August. When once raised in a soil that it likes, it sows itself
without further trouble.
SUN-FLOWER.— Lat. Helianthus multiflora, A hardy pe-
314 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
rennial plant, originally from North America, about four feet
high, and blows a yellow flower in July and August. Propagated
by seed sowed in a border in July, and the young plants planted,
when thev are fit, in the places where they are to remain ; also by
separating the roots in the autumn or spring. Sun-flower,
annual. — Lat. H. annuus. An annual, which came originally
from Peru ; grows from four to six feet high, having the coarsest
stem leaf, and flower of any cultivated plant. The flower is
yellow, and appears in July and August. Is sometimes double,
and is from six inches to a foot in diameter; bears abundance of
oilv seed, which is much liked by poultry of every sort. Propa-
gated by its seed, sowed early in spring, and the plants when
in their sixth leaf removed to where they are to blow. Fit for
nothing but very extensive shrubberies. When seen from a dis-
tance, the sight may endure it.
SWALLOW- WORT, flesh-coloured. — Lat. Asclepias incar-
nata. A hardy perennial. Woody thick branches, growing from
three to four feet high, and blowing, in July and August, bunches
of flesh-coloured flowers at their extremities. Propagate by di-
viding the roots in autumn.
SWEET-WILLIAM. — Lat. Dianthus barbatus. This plant is
too well known to need any particular description ; it is biennial
or triennial, but is usually grown as a biennial, the seed being
sown one year to blow the next. It is one of the most ornamental
plants of the garden, an oblong bed of sweet-williams being, to
mv eve the most beautiful thing that one can behold of the
flower kind. The varieties of colour are without end, and the
stiff stalk of the plant holds them up to view in so complete a
manner, that there is nothing left to wish for in this plant. The
seed should be sowed in an open bed in the spring, and in rows,
which should be kept hoed and weeded through the summer. In
autumn plant them out where they are to blow, and do not put
the plants nearer than within six inches of one another, either in
beds or in clumps. If you wish to propagate a particular plant,
you must do it bv striking a cutting from one of the flower-
stalks • but this should be before that stalk has flowered. Let
there be two joints to the cutting ; and strike it under n hand-
glass upon a little beat.
THISTLE the plobe. — Echinops ritro. A hardy perennial of
VII.] LIST <>K II D\\ KK-. 315
the south of France, growing three or four feet in height, and
blows a light blue flower in August. Propagated by Bowing, or
by separating the roots. Any soil suits it.
THRIFT. — Lat. Statite Armeria. A native of the Alps \ the
roots are perennial and fibrous ; it rises three inches high or
more, and spreads very fast. The variety with a bright scarlet
flower, which comes in May and lasts throughout the month of
June, should find a place in small borders, but it should be regu-
larly parted every year to prevent its spreading too widely.
TlGER-FLOWER. — Lat. Thjridia pavonia. A very beautiftd
bulbous plant from Mexico. Grows from one to two feet high ;
with narrow sword-shaped leaves, and a stalk longer than these,
which, in the month of July, blows many flowers of a yellow or
scarlet colour beautifully spotted with purple. The flowers never
come out more than one or two at a time, and thev last but six
hours, when they drop, and are, the next day, succeeded by
others. This plant is not quite hardy; therefore, the best wav to
cultivate it in the open ground is as you do your superior hyacinths,
taking it up when its leaves decay, and keeping it out of ground
and in a dry place, till spring, when you replant it in the bed or
in the border. In pots, in the green-house, it does very well, but
not better than in the open air when treated as above, and in a
suitable soil ; namely, a fine and somewhat light and deep garden
mould. Propagate by separating the offsets from the mother
bulbs, and treating them as you do tulips,
TOAD-FLAX, ivy -leaved. — Lat. Linarid cymbalaria. A hardy
annual plant, found on old walls ; which, hanging over the sides
of a pot, will blow a pale purple flower during the whole of the
summer. Propagated by seed. Toad-Flax, black -flowered. —
Lat. Antirrhinum triste. Takes its name from the little gayetv
of its colour, which, at a distance, is of a sombre brown. Pret-
tier on close examination, green-house plant, but requires to be
out of doors, excepting in frost. Flowers almost all the summer,
and is propagated by CXlttingS, as it never ripens seed with us.
TOBACCO. — Lat. Nicotiana TabaCUm. This is a tender
annual plant, and therefore requires to be sowed early in spring
(beginning of March) in a hot-bod. Sow in broad-mouthed
pots, and, as the seeds are remarkably small, cover over verv
slightly indeed, and when you give water, take care that the pots
are1 so shaded from mid-day sun as for the earth not to be baked
31f> SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [cHAP.
over the sprouting seed?, for this infallibly kills them. When the
plants have five or six leaves, and, if the weather be fine, they
should be put out, and the roots sunk deep enough in the ground
to allow of their being firmly fastened there. A shady time is the
best for this work ; or, if the weather be hot and dry, the plants
should be covered in the sunniest part of the day, so as to keep the
rays of the sun from broiling them up. A little covering at nights
will also be expedient, as a sharp frost would destroy them all in
one night. The plant grows from five to eight feet high, ac-
cording as the soil is deep and rich. It likes a moist soil, but, by
means of manure, may be made very fine in a shallow and dry
one. The leaf is very large, and the flower, though small in
proportion to the size of the plant, is a very pretty crimson, and
makes a good show. So tall a plant should, of course, be placed
in such a situation as not to hide smaller plants. — There is a
yellow sort, not so tall, nor so handsome, but worth a place in the
back of large borders, or in the front of shrubberies.
TUBEROSE, common. — Lat. Polyanthes tuberosa. A green-
house perennial plant, about three feet high, and a native of the
East Indies. Blows a white flower in August and September, and
has a very powerful scent. Propagated by the offsets, which are
separated from the principal root every year, as it blows, generally,
but once. The offsets should be planted in a hot-bed, and they
blow in about two years. Likes substantial though light earth.
The bulbs of this plant are imported annually, by the florists and
seedsmen, from Italy, as are those of the Amaryllis, from Guernsey ;
and it is better to buy these and only force them into flower by
means of the stove, or hot-bed to begin with, and then the green-
house, than to attempt to propagate them from offsets, which are
long in coming to perfection.
TULIP. — Lat. Tulipa sylvestris. This is the native tulip, but
is so completely eclipsed by the eastern plant of the same name
that it is scarcely known, though one variety, the double yellow,
is a most desirable border flower, producing handsome large and
verv double flowers in May. It is multiplied by parting its offsets
every year from the mother bulb, and likes a lightish soil.
TuLIP, the florist's. — Lat. Tiflipa Gesnariana. — From the Levant.
A hardy bulb that has occupied the attention of florists more
than any other plant. There are early-blowing and late-blowing
varieties, the- former appearing in April, and the latter in May and
VII.] LIST OF FLOWERS. 317
June ; and as tit colours, they match the rainbow, I will mention
the names of two or three of the early and the double varieties.
Early blowers, Due ran Thai, Clarimond, Due van Orange,
Double, Marriage de ma Fi/te, double red, double yellow. Of
single late-blowers there are upwards of six hundred named
varieties, so I give none of these. For borders, they arc sold by
the florists at five shillings the hundred. All are propagated in
the same way : by offsets or by seed ; but most commonly by
offsets, because to do it by seed is expensive and most tedious, as
the seedling plants do not come into flowering till the fifth or
sixth year. By offsets : When you take out your old bulbs to
plant, break off the largest offsets from the sides, and plant them
at two or three inches apart in a bed of sandy loam with a sub-
stratum of rotted cow- dung at about eight inches beneath the
surface. Let the bed be raised a few inches above the adjoining
ground and rounded so as to turn off rains, and have it hooped
over so that, in severe frosts or long-continued rains, you may
throw over a covering to guard against either. By seed : Procure
the seed from those plants that have the tallest and straightest
stems, the flowers the most even, the most clear in the cup, and
of the purest colours : and let the seed remain on the plant till
the pod in which it is contained becomes of a brown colour, and
begins to burst. Sow and manage in the manner directed for the
Hyacinth, which see. For bulbs that are already blowers, most
florists choose square beds, in which they plant them in rows at
seven inches asunder; the beds being first prepared in this way :
they are marked out according as the dimensions are determined
on ; then the earth is digged out completely to the depth of
twenty inches or more; a layer, ten inches thick, of good fre.di
earth from a rather sandy pasture is put in, and upon it a thin
coat of well-rotted cow-dung; on that, another layer of the fresh
pasture mould is laid in, to about four inches above the surface of
the ground, in the middle, and sloping down at the sides, where
also it should be a little higher than the adjacent ground, to
which it will settle. It is left so for ten days, and then, about the
end of October, being intersected by lines across and along in
such way as for every intersection to be seven inches from the
neighbouring ones, holes about four inches deep are made at
every one of these, a little drift sand deposited in each hole, and
the bulbs are put in and covered over carefully. Beds of this
3 IS SHRUBBERIES AXD FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
kind are generally hooped over, so as to admit of covering during
the winter ; but some have a high frame to cover them, so high
as to admit of one's walking under; and these are covered with
canvass awnings and are intended to keep off the fierce rays of
the sun while the plants are in blossom. When planted in the.
flower-border, tulips should be put in clusters of from six to
twelve, and the bulbs not nearer to one another than six or seven
inches. They should be planted, in very light soils, at six inches
beneath the surface; and, in heavy soils, at four inches beneath
the surface, and should have a little sand put into the holes that
thev are planted in. Lightish pasture-ground is most suitable
to them, and the manure for them is always rotted cow-dung.
When the leaves begin to turn brown, and the upper part of the
flower stem also begins to turn, take up the bulbs and place them
in a drv hut airy situation, where they will remain till September
or October, when vou separate their offsets from them and replant
both offsets and mother bulbs in their respective beds, I must
again observe, that, in the flower borders, they look best in
clusters; the early ones particularly are ornamental in this way,
being very short in the flower-stalk and blending well with the
vellow and blue crocuses.
VALERIAN, blue-floivered Greek. — Lat. Polemonium caruZeum.
Is a hardy perennial plant, common in many parts of England,
blowing in May, June and July, a bright blue, or a white flower.
Propagated by seed or by separating the roots. Any soil suits it,
but not a shady situation. About two or three feet high.
Valerian, red. — Lat. Valeriana rubra. A perennial plant of
the south of France, three or four feet high, and blows a red
flower from June to October. There are other sorts with white,
pink and lilac flowers. They come handsomest in a light, warm
and rich soil, and are propagated by sowing the seed, and by
dividing the roots. When once obtained they sow themselves.
VENUS'S LOOKIXG-GLASS. — Lat. Campanula speculum.
A little annual, growing eight or ten inches high, and, in May
and July, blowing many very pretty small white or violet-coloured
flowers. Sow early in the spring, and in the place where it is to
remain.
VERBENA, creeping. — Lat. V. cliamcedrifolia mendo-a. A
trailing and most contemptible plant to look upon until its blos-
soms begin to appear, which they do early in June, and which
VII.] LIST OP FLOWERS. 319
consist of a small tuft of the most brilliant scarlet flowers that
can be conceived. It should be slightly protected dining winter;
and under a slight covering of straw or litter it will die down and
then come up again in spring. Propagate by cuttings or layers.
any piece having a joint will strike freely. A beautiful plant for
rock-work, and blows all the summer long.
VERNQNIA, long-leaved. — Lat. V. noveioracensis. A peren-
nial plant from North America, three or four feet in height, and
blows a blue, or light purple, flower, from September till Novem-
ber.— Vernonia, fall. — Lat. Vetnonia prcealta. A hardy peren-
nial plant from North America, five or six feet high, and blows a
purple flower from September till November. These plants are
very ornamental in shrubberies, as they blow when all other
things have done. Propagated by separating their roots : also by
seed, sown in the open earth. Like a rich loamy soil. VER-
VAIN, cluster -flowered. — Lat. Verbena mull'ifidu, A hardy bien-
nial plant from Buenos Ayres. Blows a deep purple flower from
July till October. Vervain, rose. — Lat. Verbena aubleiia.
A biennial frame plant from North America. About six inches
high, and blows a red flower from June till August. Propagated
by seed or by dividing the roots. Will do in any soil.
VETCH, bitter sjiring. — Lat. Orobus vernus. A perennial
plant common in France and other parts of Europe, about a foot
high, and blows in March and April. Propagated by seed sown in
the open earth, as soon as it is ripe. When the roots are strong
enough, plant them where they are to grow. It is sometimes ne-
cessary to let them wait till the spring or the following autumn
before they are removed. Likes any soil. Vine h-. mm. K (Goat's
rue-leaved). — Lat. Astragalus galegiformis. A perennial plant
originally from Siberia. Its height, four feet, blows, in July and
August, yellow flowers. It is multiplied by seed sowed in a bed of
light earth which is exposed to the south-east. When the young
plants are five or six inches high, plant them where they are des-
tined to grow.
VIOLET. — Lat. Viola odoruta. A hardy perennial plant, com-
mon in England and most parts of Europe, and blows a deep blue
flower in March and April. Varieties white, and rose-coloured ;
double blue, white, and rose-coloured; they all like a moist and
shady situation, and the single varieties are easily propagated by
seed sowed in a shady place as soon as it is ripe, that is, about
320 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP.
the beginning of August ; they do not come up till spring, and
when of a pretty good size, the young plants should be transplanted
into a shady bed there to remain until autumn, when you may
plant them where they are to remain. The double sort bears no
seed, therefore is propagated only by dividing the roots, which is
the easiest and, perhaps, best way of propagating either. Do this
as soon as the plant has done flowering, keep it moist till it have
taken root ; water, if the weather be very dry ; and do not part
the roots more than once in three years, as the tufts must be pretty
thick to flower well. — Violet, the dogs-tooth.— hot. Erythroniwm
dens cards. A purple pendulous flower with leaves spotted with
brown on the upper side. Blows in the beginning of April. May
be transplanted any time between June and September. Roots
should not be kept out of the ground long, for they are apt to
rot. Plant in patches, ten or a dozen roots near to one another,
as they look best so. Perennial, four inches high.
WALLFLOWER.— Lat. Che'tranthvs cheiri. A biennial plant
of the south of Europe. Grows from one to two feet high, and
blows a fine yellow flower from April till June. Propagated by
seed, sowed in a hot-bed of moderate heat, or in beds out of
doors in March. When they are four or five inches high, they
are planted where they are to remain. They want little watering,
and a soil rather dry than moist. The double ones are pro-
pagated by cuttings planted in good earth and rather shaded. This
plant is called hardy, but in very severe frosts it should have pro-
tection, or it blows late and sparingly, and not so double as other-
wise it would. It may be made the hardier by being sowed in
poor ground, which causes the plant to be less succulent and con-
sequently less susceptible of frost. It grows well on old walls, or
any walls, indeed ; or on rubbish of any kind, and makes a pretty
show wherever it is found.
W1LLOW-HFRB, the rose buy. — Lat. Epilobium angustifo-
tium. A native perennial plant, owing its vulgar name to the re-
semblance of its leaf to that of the common willow. It grows
three or four feet high, sends up innumerable branches, which are
decked thinly all the way up by narrow pointed leaves, and, to-
wards the tops of these branches, it bears a peach-blossom flower
in July and August It is a troublesome thing in a flower border,
on account of the great quantity of stems that it sends up from it^
very wide-spreading root, and, on this account (as well as on ac-
VII.] list OF PLOW] .'521
count of its height not suiting a border), it is not cultivated in it,
but is generally amongst the front rows of the shrubbery. The
soil tli.it it likes best is a moist one, but it does not refuse a pretty
dry one. There is a white variety ; both propagated by dividing
the roots in the fall.
WOOD-SORREL, violet-coloured. — Lat. Oxalia violacea. A
perennial bulb originally from North America, and blows a violet-
coloured flower in May and June. It grows three or four inches
high, likes a light soil, and is propagated by parting the offsets,
or by seed which should be managed like the tulip, only that it
requires less pains.
WORM -GRASS, Maryland. — Lat. Spigelia Marilandica. A
handsome crimson flower blowing in June and July. Native of
Maryland. It is difficult to propagate, which, must lie done by
parting its roots ; and though sufficiently hardy to bear an or-
dinary winter, it is difficult to keep, (irows a foot high.
XER ANTHEM UM, annual, or immortal herb. — Lat. X. an-
innim. A plant from the south of Europe About a foot high,
and blows, in July and August, a purplish flower. Propagate from
seed sowed in the open ground where it is to grow. ^ "hen it is
in a warm situation it propagates itself.
ZINNIA — Lat. Z. multijlora. An annual plant originally from
North America. Sends up many flower stalks about a foot and a
half high, and, at the end of each, bears a brownish red flower, in
the months of July, August and September. Propagated by sow-
ing the seed in April where the plants are to blow, or in February
in a hot-bed, to be planted out in April ; not particular as to soil
or situation ; will do well in rock-work, and makes a pretty show
in the border.
Z1Z1PHORA, oval-leaved, — Lat. Z. capitation. A hardy an-
nual plant from Syria, about six inches high, and blows a purplish
flower in June and July. — Z. spear-leaved. — Lat. Z. teiunor.
A hardy annual plant from the Levant, about a foot high, and
blows in June and July. Both are propagated by seed sown in
the autumn or in the spring where they are to remain,
A KALENDAR
Of Work to be performed in each Month of the Year.
JANUARY.
Kitchen Garden. — In our variable climate, what is to be done this
month, depends much on the state of the weather ; but, if it is not deep
snow, there is always something to be done advantageously. Even deep
snow gives time for cleaning, thrashing, and sorting of seeds, pre-
paring stakes and pea-sticks, tying mats, sorting bulbs, and many
similar sorts of employment. Dry frost makes an opportunity of
manuring land with ease and neatness, and also of pruning gooseberries,
currants, and other hardy shrubs, and of clearing away dead trees and
bushes, and thinning others. If the weather is mild and open, a few
seeds may be sown, but not in great quantities ; in general, land is now
troublesome to work ; fresh digged, or forked (if it has been ridge-
trenched), works best. Sow, for early use, radishes and carrots on a
warm sunny border ; peas, beans, round spinage, parsley ; small salad
in frames, old mint roots on heat under glass will soon give a supply of
green mint. Pot over and cover seaca'.e, and rhubarb ; where a suc-
cession is required, some may be forced on heat, some with dry litter,
ashes, or even with light mould. Remember that the blanching of sea-
cale depends on the exclusion of the light and air, either of which spoils
it. Attend to lettuces and cauliflowers in frames, endive in frames or
under hoops; in mild weather, if dry, let them have as much air as pos-
sible; in hard frost, cover well. A few onions for eating green should
now be sown, cover with dry litter till they are up. Mushroom beds
must be most carefully protected from wet and frost, cover well with dry
litter ; mats or canvass covering is indispensably necessary, over the
litter, to keep it firm and throw off the wet. Turn dunghills and compost
heaps. I say it at once for the whole year, destroy vermin wherever you
can find them.
KU.ENDAU. 323
Fruit Garden. — Cut and nail in vines, pears, cherries, and plums,
against walls and femes ; apricots and peaches are more 9afely left till
next month, or rather till the huds begin to swell. Thin standard and
dwarf trees of decayed and superfluous wood. Vlant fruit trees if
favourable weather ; prune gooseberries and currants and other fruit
shrubs ; prepare and plant cuttings of the two former, and suckers of
the latter, to plant in a nursery; take of the shoot buds of the goose-
berries ami currants as far as they are to be planted in the ground,
the so doing prevents the stems of the future bushes from being
always pestered with suckers; it will not prevent the cutting from
striking.
Flower Garden and Shrubbery. — In this, little can be done this
month, except planting hardy roots and bulbs ; protecting by covering
those planted in autumn ; plant, deciduous trees and shrubs. Sow sweet-
peas to succeed those sown in November ; roll, pole, and sweep grass
walks, verges, and lawns ; keep them clear from leaves and rubbish ; root
out dandelions and docks if there. Plant box edgings.
Forcing Garden. — Attend to articles sown on heat in December. If
you want them early, you may now force radishes on slight heat under
frames, asparagus, potatoes, French beans, rhubarb, seacale, strawberries
in pots. Where you have the convenience of a green-house, many things
may be forwarded in this way. Cucumbers and melons now require
particular attention, to keep up the heat equally by linings and coverings.
Sow for next month.
Greex-House. — Pick oft' decayed leaves, water sparingly, give air
freely in mild dry days ; light fires, not to promote growth, but to keep
out frost, and to dry up damps. Cover potted stocks and other plants in
frames during hard frost.
FEBRUARY.
Kitchen Garden. — Whatever was mentioned as proper to be done
last month, and was not performed, may be done this, either in sowing,
planting or pruning : if your land is light and dry, you may sow onions
for a main crop towards the close of the month, but on cold and heavy
soils it is better to wait to the middle of March ; earth up celery, if you
have any left unearthed. Plant beans for a full crop about the middle
of the month. Sow peas in succession as they are likely to be wanted,
radishes under straw covering, coss lettuce on heat to transplant ; on
light rich soils lettuces may be sown broadcast, or drilled ; they will, if
they escape slugs and other vermin, be nearly as forward as those now
v 2
.324 > KALENDAR.
sown on heat ; the frost will seldom injure them. If you have good
strong- plants of the coss lettuces which, sown in October, in the frames,
have stood the winter, and the weather be mild and the plants in a grow-
ing state, transplant them on a sunny spot of rich light soil ; do not
be afraid of winds and frosts. Sow savoys for early planting, leeks,
cabbages if wanted, spinage, parsnips, parsley, carrots, Dutch turnips
under litter, cauliflowers on heat. Many of these sowings must depend
on the nature of your soil and the weather. Plant cabbages, garlick,
rocambole, onions for seed, shalots, cives, horseradish-crowns. Get
what hoeing you can done in dry days ; get as close in with your work as
you can; and prepare for the busy month of March.
Fruit Garden. — Continue, and conclude if you can, the business of
last month ; prune and nail in peaches, apricots, figs, nectarines ; lay
vines (in pots is the best way), sow haws, pips and fruit kernels ; many
kinds of which may be not only much forwarded, but secured, if sown
under glass, from the birds and vermin : in their infant state many of
these things are very tender. Plant fruit-trees, shrubs, and bushes ;
crab, apple, pear, and ether stocks for next year's grafting: if favourable
weather, grafting may be begun at the close of the month ; collect and
prepare scions for grafting.
Flower Garden. — Towards the end, if open weather, transplant pinks,
carnations, and other hardy flowers, part the roots of southernwood,
sweet-williams, candytuft, campanula, &c. if not done in the autumn ;
make and repair box and thrift edgings. Get your strawberries, grass
lawns and verges and gravel walks, into order.
Forcing Garden. — Attend to your cucumbers and melons, and to all
other matters in this department. Sow cucumbers and melons to pot
and ridge out in March; many articles may now be forced with less
difficulty than in the former month, as, kidney- beans, strawberries,
rhubarb ; less heat and less covering will be required, unless the weather
is particularly severe.
Green-House. — Give air freely when the weather admits of so doing,
no more tire-heat than is necessary to keep out frost and dispel damp ;
other management as last month ; shorten and head straggling growing
plants.
MARCH.
Kitchen Garden. — Sow artichokes, Windsor beans, cauliflowers to
come in the autumn ; celery, capsicums, love-apples, marjorum and
basil, on gentle heat ; lettuces, marigold, blue, Prussian, and other p*oi
K MEN DAK.
in surcrssion ; onions for a principal crop, hut do not °n\v them till
the ground works well and fine ; parsley, radishes, borage, savoys, -mall
salading in succession as wanted ; asparagus in seed beds, heets, salsary,
scor?enera, skirrets, fennel, cabbages red and white, tarnips, nasturtiums,
early purple hroeoli. thyme, and all sorts of herhs that are raised from
seed, Brussels BproutS, parsnips, round spinage, leeks, carrots for a main
crop, chervil, coriander, French beans at the close of the month in a
warm soil ; plutit out cauliflowers, hops in chimps for their tops, small
onions of last year's sowing, for early heading-, old onions for seed,
lettuces, perennial herhs by slips or parting- the roots, asparag-us, arti-
chokes from suckers, potatoes for a main crop, cabbages, white and red,
Jerusalem artichokes, chives, potato-onions, &c.
Fruit Garden. — Head down old trees and shrubs, plant out trees and
shrubs, continue and finish pruning* if you can ; plant out stocks for next
year's grafting- and budding", if not done in autumn, this is the principal
month for grafting- most sorts of trees, plant gooseberries, currants,
raspberries, protect blossoms of fruit-trees when in blossom, dig- fruit-
tree borders.
Flower Garden. — Sow adonis, alyssum, prince's feather, snap-
dragon, yellow balsam, candy tuft, catchfly, convolvulus minor, devil-
in-a bush, hawkweed, Indian pink, larkspurs, lavatera, linaria, mig-
nonette, moonwort, nasturtiums, nig-ella, palma christi, pansey,
sweet pea, persicaria, scabious, sun-flowers, strawberry-spinag-e, ten-
week-stocks, sweet sultan, venus-naval-wort. On hot-bed, sow convol-
vulus major, amaranthus, tricolor and globe, balsam, chinaster, china
hollyhock, chrysanthemums, jacobea (French groundsel), ten-week-stocks,
zinnia, marvel-of-Peru, plant autumnal bulbs, such as the tiger flower,
dahlias, anemones, and ranunculuses, if any not yet planted, may make a
late blossom. Hardy kinds of potted plants that have been sheltered
should be now gradually inured to the open air, dress auriculas, carna-
tions, protect best tulips and hyacinths, plant offsets, and part fibrous-
rooted plants, take up and plant layers of carnations, pinks, seedlings of
the same and other things and plant them, plant box, thrift, and daisies
for edgings. Many of even the more hardy kinds of plants will be much
advanced, if sown on a little heat, and carefully hardened to the open
air before put out. Lay turf, put and keep gravel-walks in good order,
also grass-plats and edgings, roll, poll, and sweep, keep the shrubbery
clean, remove all litter, finish planting shrub-.
Forcing Garden. — This is a good time to begin to force vines, if
you have a grapery, the sun will BO materially assist you. Cucumbers
and Melons, in fruit, and beginning to -how fruit, musl be carefullv at-
326 KAL.ENDAR.
tended to : give air and water as required ; line the beds as the heat de-
clines ; cover carefully, and uncover early ; sow for a crop for June and
August ; make slight hot beds for French beans, and for raising seed-
lings of the tender plants you may want. Mushroom beds may be made.
Green -House. — Fire heat will not be necessary now, unless in unusu-
ally cold or damp weather; or, when frost is indicated, give air and water
more freely. Shift and re-pot those plants that require it. Propagate
by cuttings, slips, layers, and parting the roots, grafting, budding, and
inarching. Sow geranium and balm-of-Gilead seeds, &c. on slight heat.
Pot out in small pots when fit, the balsams, amaranthuses, cockscombs,
sensitives, and other tender annuals, on slight heat under glass ; they will,
the best of them, have to take their station in the green-house, when the
present possessors, the geraniums, myrtles, &c. are turned out. — See
Flower Garden, March.
APRIL
Kitchen Garden. — Beans may still be sown, peas, kidney-beans,
scarlets, beets, brocoli, purple, white, and brimstone, late and early of
all sorts : the cape about the third week, the sprouting the first week ;
savoys, cabbages, green cale, brown cale, Lapland ditto, and sea cale, it
is best to sow this last in drills where it is to remain, as it transplants
with great difficulty and never well, on account of the brittleness of the
roots ; sow it in drills about eighteen inches apart, from row to row.
Continue sowing in general what was directed last month if wanted, and
not then sown, or the seed or plants destroyed or failed. Kidney-beans
for full crop at the end of the month if dry, also scarlet-runners, herbs,
onions to pull young. Leeks, turnips, spinage, caraway, basil and
marjorum on heat. Plant potatoes, slips of thyme, lavender, sage,
rosemary, rue, tansey, balm, hyssop, tarragon, wormwood, sorrel, savory,
by parting of the roots; mint, by cutting the young sprigs about an inch
in the ground, with a portion of the roots. Plant lettuces, celery for
early use, cauliflowers, cabbages if required, leeks, turnips, transplant
onions, prick out the capsicums sown last month on gentle heat ; prick
out celery sown in February or March. Hoeing and weeding are now
required among all the crops planted in autumn, and as spring-planted
grow, weeding and hoeing must be done to promote growth. Stick peas.
Fruit Garden. — Finish planting trees and shrubs and stocks ; head
down newly-planted trees and stocks ; finish hedging, ditching, and
banking, all clean up. Sow fruit-stones, kernels, and pips, protect blos-
soms, rub off ell the useless and foreright ?hoota of wall-trees in time-
KALKNDVU .T27
Attend to newly-grafted trees, ami keep th« 'lay firm. Sow liMJtl of
forest trees.
Flower-G \ri>k\ and Suri bbi.rv. — 8otD the same as last month,
sow at the end for succession, the same things; but those then sowed m
a BOt-bed, to forward them, may now be sowed in the open ground : pro-
pagate, by layers, slips, and cutting's ; strike slips or cutting's of China
roses on gentle heat ; prick out on gentle heat tender annuals to forward
I hem. Shelter choice auriculas in pots from wind, rain, and sun. This
is the best time to plant evergreens ; plant dahlias, crysanthemums, stocks,
and other hardy annuals. Mow grass-plats, &c, sweep and roll.
Forcing Grounds — Keep the grapery to about seventy-five degrees,
pull off all useless shoots and top-bearing branches ; keep your cucum-
bers and melons in free growth, less artificial beat, air and water more
freely. If the plants droop at hot sun, shade for an hour or two, make
beds for succession as required ; sow cucumbers for planting under hand-
glasses in May; gourds, squashes, pumpkins. Keep the hardier things
that are forced, such as potatoes, French beans, &c. duly watered ; give
air by taking the glasses off, cover at night.
Green- Hoise. — Fire heat will not now be wanted, unless to expel
damp and sharp frost; air and water more freely. Shift and re-pot those
plants which need it. Propagate by the rules laid down for last month.
If insects appear, fumigate them, strike heaths, sow and graft camellias;
prune and tie where wanted.
MAY.
Kitchex Garden. — Sow kidney-beans, brocoli for spring use,
cape for autumn, cauliflowers for December ; Indian corn, cress,
cucumbers under band-glasses, and in the open ground, for pickling.
Onions to plant out next year as bulbs ; radishes, spinage, salsafy,
skirrets, squash, nasturtiums, herbs, endive (not much), turnips, cab-
bages, savoys, lettuces, coleworts, prick out and plant celery, lettuces,
capsicums, basil, marjorum and other annual herbs, love-apples ; slip
sage, this is proverbially the best time of the year for its striking. Plant
radishes for seed, spring-sown cabbages, finish planting of potatoes ; stick
peas, move cucumbers and squashes put out last month, top beans when
in blossom ; hoe and thin out the crops of onions, carrots, lettuces,
parsnips, and other spring crops ; hoe and earth up peas, beans, potatoes,
keep the hoe well moving, and destroy weeds every where. Tie up
lettuces and cabbages to heart in, and blanch for use. Mark the
stumps of best cabbages when cut, to put out for seed \ when the stumos
328 KAI.ENDAR.
have sprouted above two inches, take them up, and lay them in by the
heels at a foot apart, and about three feet from row to row.
Fruit Garden. — Look to your grafts, and take off or loosen the
bandages as wanted, disbud or take off with your finger and thumb the
foreright and superfluous young- shoots of wall-trees : thin the fruit set
on the apricots, peaches, and nectarines ; nail in the vines as soon as
possible. Caterpillars will noiv be hatching. Water new-planted trees if
necessary, keep young stocks and seedlings clear in the nursery; if
troubled with insects, water or rather pelt wall-trees with strong lime or
tobacco water, or fumigate them with a bellows. Look over newly-budded
and grafted trees, aud rub oft' all the shoots that arise from the stock,
below the bud of the graft. Water strawberries.
Flower Garden. — Weed, hoe, and set out to their proper distances,
seedlings just come up ; at about the middle or end of the month sow
again for succession, larkspurs, mignonette, ten-week and wallflower-
leaved stock, minor convolvulus, Virginia stock, propagate by slips,
cuttings, and layers, double wallflowers, pinks, sweet-williams, rockets,
scarlet lychnis, &c. ; thin seedlings soon to prevent their being drawn up
spindling ; pot out tender annuals, freely give air to plants in the frames
as the weather permits. Shift and tie potted plants that need it ; keep
all clean, remove auriculas in pots to a north-east aspect : take up bulbous
and tuberous roots as their leaves decay. Keep the gravel-walks and
grass in neat trim.
Forcing Ground. — Continue the grapery at the same heat ; as the
fruit swells, thin the berries of the bunches with scissors : water
the vines with draining* of a dunghill. Less heat and covering will
now be required for cucumbers and melons, and more air and water
required ; ridge out cucumbers under hand-glasses : water mushroom
beds if dry.
Green-House. — Air and water abundantly ; towards the middle of the
month remove the more hardy plants out into their summer station?, let
the rest follow as occasion offers ; very tender ones may still remain.
Shift and propagate as before, bring in tender annuals from the frames.
JUNE.
Kitchen Garden. — Sow kidney-beans, pumpkins, tomattos, coleworts
for a supply of young winter greens ; under the name of plants, they are
gold nearly all the year round, in the London vegetable markets. Cu-
cumber! for pickling, this is indeed the safest and perhaps the best time
KALKNUAR. .329
for sowing: this article. It \m .>o tender that it can but seldom -land the
natural air in 1 1 1 i — climate till this month, many of the London market
gardeners sow from two to twenty acres; their method i- to bow it in
shallow drills about six or eight feet apart, dropping the seeds about three
or four inches apart in the drills, which arc slightly watered if the ground
i-. dry, if the weather is hot, the seeds vegetate and come up in a few
days ; after they get a rough leaf, they are thinned by hoeing- them out to
a foot or fifteen inches apart, and earthed with a hoe as they grow, and
soon cover the ground ; excellent crops arc sometimes had from those
sown even late in June, while those of May have been stunted and can-
kered : they seldom succeed by transplanting to the open air. Sow
black Spanish radishes for autumn and winter use. other radishes if
wanted, endive, principal sowing late in the month. Lettuces, the hardy-
co->es are now the best to sow, celery for late, turnips, peas, cardoons.
Plant cucumbers and gourds, pumpkins, nasturtiums, and in general
similar articles not planted out last month, leeks, celery, cauliflowers,
brocoli, borecole, and greencole, savoys, and other articles of autumn
and winter use, seedling and struck slips of herbs, water them when
wanted, hoe, thin out, and clean all from weeds of the spring-sown crops ;
earth beans and peas, potatoes, kidney-beans, top beans as they blossom,
slipping of herbs will still succeed, tie up lettuces to blanch for use, stick
peas, leave off cutting asparagus about the twenty-fourth, keep the hoe
well employed, save some of the best and earliest cauliflowers for seed,
cut mint and other herbs for drying ; a general rule for cutting herbs for
drying, is, to cut them when in full flower.
Fruit Garden. — We have little labour here now, except in the
prospect of gathering the crop as it comes in ; tie up and secure young
grafted trees, trimming the slocks of the wild wood ; summer prune and
nail wall trees. Budding may be begun at the elose of the month. Clip
hedges, net cherries.
Flower Garden. — General work much the same as last month : tie
tall-growing flowers up to sticks ; sow, Brompton, Twickenham, and siant
stocks to flower next spring, lay roses, evergreens, slip myrtles to strike,
pipe and lay pinks and carnations, plant tender annuals in borders, plant
out in nursery -beds seedling pinks, carnations and pickatees (sown on
slight heat in April), auriculas and polyanthuses in shailv place-.
Forcim. Ground. — Finish thinning grapes in grapery, keep the vine<
neatly trimmed and tied, discontinue fires, unless in cold or damp wea-
ther, still attend to cucumbers and melons, give air and water freely,
attend to the succession crops, let the vines of the cucumbers planted
330 KALENDAR.
under hand-glasses, run out from beneath by tilting the glasses, prune
them occasionally,
Green-House. — Give air and water as wanted. Those plants that are
out of the house must be attended to, watered when necessary, trimmed
and tied ; if excessive rain falls for days together, and you fear too much
moisture, turn the pots sideways, set out what were too tender to put out
last month. Propagate as last month.
JULY.
Kitchen Garden. — Sow kidney-beans, for the last crop about the
twentieth, they seldom succeed if sown later, early dwarf cabbages, a
principal sowing, to plant out in October, for the general crop for next
spring and summer's use may be made from the twenty-fifth to the thirty-
first, endive for autumn, peas and beans have still a little chance of suc-
cess ; radishes, lettuces, only the more hardy sorts will now succeed ;
onions a few to pull green in the autumn for salads, it should be Lisbon
or Reading onion. Coleworts for a main crop for winter, early in the
month, turnips principal sowing of the year, for autumn and winter use,
chervil to stand the winter. Plant celery, endive, lettuces, cabbages,
leeks, savoys, brocoli, greencale, cauliflowers. Hoe and keep all clean ;
dry herbs, pull up, dry, and house, onions, garlick, shalots and the like
as the tops fade. Stick peas and scarlet-beans, blanch white beets, tie
up lettuces and endive for blanching, top beans, earth celery, gather
seeds.
Fruit Garden. — Bud ; water, if dry, newly-planted fruit-trees ; nail
and thin, and trim wall-fruit-trees, keep all in neat order. Head down
young espaliers ; stop fruit-bearing shoots of vines ; prune away shoots
and suckers from the stems of trees. Net morella and other cherries, and
currants.
Flower Garden. — General work as last month. What was not done
then, must be done this ; repetition would be useless ; part auriculas and
polyanthus roots, gather seeds, dry and house them, mark every sort and
sample. Plant saffron crocus and other autumn bulbs. Sow mignonette
in pots to blow in shelter in the winter, likewise ten-week stock, both at
the end of the month, to make an earlier sowing as well, would give a
better chance. Clip box, also evergreen hedges.
Forcing Ground. — The crop in the grapery will now be ripening or
ripe, keep the vines neatly trimmed ; give plenty of air to colour the
grapes ; a fire may be nccessirv in very damp weather to prevent in-
KALKNDAR. 331
jury to the fruit. Suecessional graperies require tlio same treatment in
the different Stages of their growth. Attend to your late cucumbers and
melons, uf which, if properly managed, you will have abundance.
Green-House — (uncial treatment as last month. Geranium cuttings
will now strike like weeds in the Open ground, from which they are
easily potted. Strike heath-. This is the best month, particularly the
early part of it, to strike myrtles. The slips should be about two inches
long, thickly pricked out into large pots, or under a hand-glass on gentle
heat, and shaded from hot sun, till they have struck, which will be seen
by their making growth : they will not be fit to pot till September.
AUGUST.
Kitchen Garden. — Sow early cabbages in the first week, the last
sowing for the year. Red cabbages same time ; cauliflower for spring
and summer use, about the twenty- first, cress, hardy coss and cabbage
lettuces from about the twelfth to the thirtieth, to stand the winter,
prickly spillage for a principal winter crop about the same time. Turnips
last sowing, Welsh onions first week in the month, Lisbon, Strasburg,
and Reading, from the middle to the end of the month. Radishes,
chervil, Spanish turnip radishes, carrots to pull early in the spring, corn
salad, plant endive in sheltered spots ; planting for winter must not now
be delayed, put out as fast as possible, if not enough planted, savoys,
cabbages, brocoli, coleworts, celery, &c. Hoe, and earth up where ne-
cessary, weed, and thin young crops, water and shade where requisite.
Gather seeds as they ripen, dry and store them, dry and house onions,
garlic, shalots ; dry herbs as they flower. Dig up, dry, and put by
mushroom spawn.
Fruit Garden. — Finish budding ; and loosen the bandages round buds,
put in earlier, or take them entirely off, plant out strawberries that struck
in the fore part of the spring ; keep all the wall-trees in neat trim ;
early in the month wattle round with willow or hurdle rods some of the
best currant-bushes, where none of the fruit has been fingered, and mat
them over, or, what is better, cover them with canvass or bunting ; the
crop may with care be preserved till October.
Flower Garden. — Continue to take up, dry and store, bulbous and
other flower roots, as the leaves decay. General work as last month.
Gather seeds of shrubs and flower-. Sow in pots for succession to blow
in the winter. Plant autumnal bulbs : plant where to remain, piping's
and layers, and seedlings of hardy plants ; transplant auriculas and their
like. Shift succulent plants in pots,
332 KALENDAR.
Forcing Ground. — The greatest part of the labour here is now over
for the year. Attend to what you have left, water and thin as required ;
make mushroom beds, put by and repair lights and frames as they fall
into disuse ; or place them to forward and protect wall-fruit.
Green-House. — The same management as last month and the pre-
vious, pot and shift towards the end of the month. Pot all your young-
stock, raised from seed, cuttings or layers.
SEPTEMBER.
Kitchen Garden. — Sow Reading onions for transplanting in the
spring, carrots on warm border; both the first week ; spinage, Spanish
and other radishes in warm spots, same time. Plant, for spring, cole-
worts, savoys for greens, late brocoli, celery, lettuces, and endive on
warm borders, or, dry open pieces ; herbs, culinary and medicinal ; prick
out cauliflowers ; clear herb-beds and all decayed articles ; finish drying
and housing of onions, seeds, &c, earth up celery, cardoons, take up
and house potatoes, cut onion seed.'
Fruit Garden. — Propagate by layers and cuttings, gather and store
keeping fruit as it ripens or is fit ; net grapes, bag the best in bags of
gauze, crape or bunting. Keep all trim on the wall-trees; thin the
leaves (but not too much), where they impede the rays of the sun from
the fruit ; prepare ground for planting fruit-trees.
Flower Garden. — Take up tiger flowers and other tender bulbs. Put
in pots, Guernsey and Belladonna lilies : clear decayed flowers and lit-
tered leaves away ; trim plants and shrubs, the best auriculas in pots,
dress, shift, and place in shady shelter. Towards the end of the month
plant crocuses, common anemones, early tulips, lilies, and other scaly
bulbs ; remove succulent potted plants into shelter, as aloes, Indian figs,
&c. Remove potted mignonette to a warm sunny border, or place it in
frames, covering at night. Plant out seedling carnations, pinks, and
pickatees, also layers and pipings of, where they are to remain ; gather
seeds.
Forcing Ground. — The observations of last month are applicable to
this, almost all is in a state of decline and inactivity here, as far as regards
forcing ; the same may be said of the succeeding month and November,
except that in November preparations may be made for forcing asparagus
and sea cale ; this month, however is a good time for making mushroom
beds.
Green-House. — Ha ! we smell winter here. General management
the lame a<i last month, The more tender plant- -honKl now ho token
KA1.KNDAR. 3.'J3
in the first week ; it is better to be too early than too late ; and it'
surprised by frost, the effects are woeful. The whole should be housed
by the end of the month as a measure of prudence.
OCTOBER.
Kitchen Garden. — Sow a few mazagan beans, cress, white coss
letluces in frames for spring planting. Manure well, and plant the
principal crop of cabbages for spring, lettuces, coleworts, celery, last
planting ; shalots, garlic on dry ground, strawberries, bulbs, herbs,
clear off decayed leaves, hoe and weed, get all as clean up as possible;
fini-h taking up and housing potatoes, the same of carrots, salsafy,
scorzenera, shelter seedling cauliflowers from frost, or they will be black-
skunked. Break in the leaves of the late cauliflower that show fruit, to
cover them from frost ; early white brocoli, the same, cut down asparagus-
stalks, trench vacant ground, manure. Get all your planting close up.
Fruit Garden. — Transplant young fruit-trees ; plant stocks of all
kinds as soon as the sap is down. Apples and pears, and all winter-
keeping fruit, must not be delayed gathering beyond this month. Sow
cherry-stones, take up layers of trees and shrubs of last year's laying and
plant them.
Flower Garden. — Very hardy flowers, such as larkspurs, may be
•-owed to stand the winter, and blossom early, plant hyacinths, tulips,
anemones, ranunculuses, bulbous irises, &c. Finish separating and
planting, carnation layers, &c. Put hyacinths, narcissuses, early tulips
and jonquils, in water-glasses. Plant cuttings of jasmine, laurel, cubas,
honeysuckle, &c, preserve potted carnations from wet and frost, place
them in a sunny situation, house or put under glass the mignonette in
pots. Plants, deciduous trees and shrubs, herbaceous plants.
Forcing Ground. — The directions for last month apply here, attend
to your mushroom beds.
Green-House, — Water sparingly, give much air, move all in, arrange
your plants and take care of them.
NOVEMBER.
Kitchen Garden. — Sow early peas, leeks, beans, radishes, and early
horn carrots, on warm borders, salad on heat. Plant cabbage-stumps for
seed, cauliflowers under hand-glasses and frames early in the month,
lettuces under cover for winter use, endive, rhubarb in rows after
parting old roots ; finish taking up potatoes early, or the frost may save
334 KALENDAR.
you the trouble ; take up and store carrots, beets, some parsnip3 also, to
get at in frost. Thin lettuces sown last month in frames, siftyme dry
mould among- them to strengthen them, keep them dry, let them not
have the least shower, all depends on keeping them dry, yet keep the
lights off during the day, and tilt at night to give as much air as possible
unless hard frost. Give free air to cauliflower in frames and glasses.
Examine onion and other stores.
Fruit Garden. — Sow the fruit stones that have till now been kept in
sand ; cut old wood from raspberries, begin pruning. Plant wall and
other trees, dig among trees, plant stocks.
Flower Garden. — Pull up dead flowers, and tie up those that blossom
where wanted : protect tender flowers, auriculas, &c. from wet and frost.
Plant bulbs, hardy biennials and perennials, shrubs and trees, as last
month if dry weather ; prepare shrubs for forcing, as China roses, Per-
sian lilac, &c. Attend to the grass lawns and verges, sweep up leaves,
and pole down wormcasts ; turn gravel-walks if weedy or mossy. Take
up dahlia roots, and place them secure from frost.
Forcing Ground. — Attention required as last month, but nothing new
to be done, except making beds for asparagus ; and forcing seacale.
Green-House. — Air and water as required, but more sparingly; prune
and clean, pot bulbs for forcing.
DECEMBER.
Kitchen Garden. — Sow radishes on heat, or on warm borders, cover
peas and beans. Planting ought to have all been done before. Weed,
hoeing is now of little use ; protect from frost endive, celery, and what
you can. Attend to lettuces and cauliflowers under glass as last month ;
tie endive when dry ; earth up all celery pretty closely. Hedge, ditch,
and drain as wanted, dig, trench, and manure vacant land.
Fruit Garden. — Whatever was done last month, may be done this,
except pruning-, which may as well be deferred, according to convenience.
Flower Garden. — Nothing can be usefully sown or planted ; protect
tender shrubs and plants by matting them, or straw, cover bulbs from
frost, dress and dig flower borders and shrubberies ; protect flowers as
last month.
Forcing Ground. — All is nearly dormant here, force asparagus and
seacale, prepare for sowing cucumbers.
Green-Holse. — Protect by fires from damp and frost, give air on
mild davs.
CLASSIFICATION OF SHRUBS.
Flowering trees and shrubs of from twenty to forty feet high, and proper for
the back part of shrubberies. — Cutalpa, Cedar, Lime, Locust, Loblolly-bay,
Oleaster, Pawpaw, Pistachio-tree, Service-tree, true and bastard ; Snowdrop-
tree, Tulip-tree, Ilorse-chesnut.
Shrubs of from ten to twenty feet high; proper for the middle of shrubbe-
ries.— Cashiobury-thorn,. Lilac, Magnolias, grandiflora tripetella, purpurea
and acuminata, Ziziplnis, Rose-acacia, Bladder-nut, Cypress-tree, Laburnum,
several sorts; Dogwood, two sorts; Gordonia pubescens, Georgia bark,
Guelder-rose, Almond, Cherry, several sorts; Scarlet Chesnut, Double-
flowering Apple ; flowering Gooseberry, several soits.
Shrubs of from five to ten feet high ; and proper for the outer roivs of shrubbe-
ries ; for the lawns and parterres. — Indigo, the shrubby bastard; Jasmin,
Kcelreuteria, Magnolia Glauca, Privet, Sea Buckthorn, Spindle-tree, St. John's
Wort, the hairy ; Arbutus, Sumac, Syringa, Tamarisk, Trefoil, shrubby j
Laurel, Silver-leaved Almond, Double-flowering Almond, Carolina Allspice,
Althea Frutex, Barberry, Bladder-senna, three sorts; Broom, white and
yellow; Buckthorn, Box, Bird-cherry, Double-flowering Cherry, Ponlanesia,
Rhododendron, Oleander, the small-flowering; Laurestine, Roses, standard ;
Gum-cistus, Golden Gooseberry.
Shrubs of from one foot to Jive feet high ; and proper for the edges of shrub-
beries ; fur small zrass-plats, and to mix with herbaceous Jlowers in borders. —
Alexandrian Laurel, Symphoricarpos, Mezereon, Rest Harrow, Jerusalem Sage,
Scorpion Senna, Spiraea, several sorts; Helianthemum, many sorts; Widow-
wail, Dwarf Almond, Fruitful Calycanthu -, Marsh Andromeda, Silvery An-
th)llis, Azaleas, while, red, and yellow; Candle-berry Myrtle, Dwarf Ame-
rican Cherry, Shrubby Diotis, Fuchsia, Geranium, Roses, Kalmia, Large-floux-r-
ing St. John's Wort.
Trailing and climbing shrubs, proper to hide nails, or other naked places. —
Clematis, Caper bush, Honeysuckle, Floweiing Bramble, Large flowering St.
John's Wort, Ivy, Irislurand Common; Periwinkle, Jasmin, Passion-flower,
Trumpet-flower.
Evergreen shrubs ; proper to mix in the shrubbery, or to form winter pl.usurc-
grounds.— Arbutus, Ilare's-ear, Red Cedar, Laurel, Common, Portugal, and
Alexandrian ; Oleander, Privet, Evergreen Thorn, Live Oak, Thuja, Rhodo-
dendron, Laurestine, Rose Chinese; Magnolia Grandiflora, Box, Cistus,
Mezereon, St. John's Wort, Cypress.
Green-house shrubs. — Myrtle, Olive-tree, Orange-tree, Oleander, Large-flow-
ering Pomegranate, Psorolea, Vervain, Widow-wail, Geranium, Bread-tree,
Camellia Japonica, Climbing Cobea.
CLASSIFICATION OF FLOWERS.
Tall-growing flowers j prefer for (he back part of flower-borders. — Convol-
vulus Major, Dahlia, Gaura, Golden rod, Hollyhock, Honeysuckle, Hop,
Mullein, Nasturtium, Palma Cbristi, Pea, Sun-flower.
Flowers of middling stature; proper for the middle of flower-borders, and to
mix with low-growing shrubs. — Aconite, Asphodel, Campanula Pyramidal;
Carnation, Chrysanthemum, Chelone, Coreopsis, Columbine, Fritillary, Helle-
bore, Honesty, Iris, Lavatera, Leopard's Bane, Lily, Lobplia, Loose-strife,
Lupine, Lychnis, Marvel-of-Peru, Marigold Master-wort, Pea, Phlox, Poppy,
Silphium, Soapwort, Sun-flower, Thistle, Valerian, Vernonia, Willow herb.
Flowers of from t'vo inches to two feet high ; proper border-flowers. — Adonis,
Amaryllis, yellow ; Anemone, Archangel, Aster, Auricula, Balsam, Barren-
wort, Birth wort, Bulbocodium, Caltrops, Campanula, Canterbury-bell, Cam-
pion, Candy-tuft, Catchfly, Centaury, Cineraria, Cistus, ColcMcum, Hound's-
tongue, Convolvulus Minor, Cowslip, Corn-flag-, Crepis, Crocus, Cyclamen,
Daffodil, Dragon's head, Daisy, Devil-in a-bush, Foxglove, Fraxinella, Fuma
tory, Germander, Globe-flower, Goldy locks, Ilawkweed, Hellebore, Hyacinth,
Hepatica, Larkspur, Lily of the Valley, Lobelia, Mad wort, Marigold,
Monarda, Narcissus, Nasturtium, Red Nettle, Oenothera, Onosma, Pansey,
Petunia, Pink, Polyanthus, Pceony, Primrose, Ranunculus, Rocket, Ringflower,
Rose Campion, Sand- wort, Saxifrage, Scabious, Snap-dragon, Solomon's seal,
Soldanella, Spider-wort, Stock, Strawberry-blite, Thrift, Tiger-flower, Tulip,
Vetch, Violet, Wall flower, WooJ-sorrel, Xeranthemum, Zinnia, Ziziphora.
Flowers that like moist or swampy situations; proper for the edges of pond S or
rivulets. — Avens, Marsh Trefoi1, Flowering Rush, Marsh Marigold, Monkey-
flower.
Water-flowers. — Lily, white and yellow.
Green-house and Frame flowers. — Amaryllis, Bear's Far, Cacalia, Cactus
Coris, Cyclamen, Dolichos Purpureus, Egg-plant, Indian Fig, Globularia,
Ipomea, Ixia, Sida, Squill, Tuberose, Rose, Vervain.
I N I) E X .
' Not*.— 1 he Bgtirel iclci
Ahon, Mr. 201
Aldburv, 19
Annulary incision, 251
Ants,
Apple, 261
Apricot,
Arching, 257
Artichoke, 119
Asparagus, 120
Balm, 121
Basil, 122
Bean, 123, 124
Beet, 125
Brocoli, 126
Brussels sprouts, 1'27
Burnet, 128
Bacon, Lord, 10
Barberry, 263
Birds, 295
Books, the, on gardening, 10
Box, 42 to 44
Black grub, 305
Brown, Sir A. 10
Bush form, 255
Bug, the peach, 293
Buds, 204
Budding, 212 to 218
Borage, 198
Cabbage, 129
Calabash, 130
Cale, 131
Cale, sea, 132
Camomile, 133
Capsicum, 134
( !araway, 135
( aunt, 136
Cauliflower, 137
Celery, 138
Chervil, 139
(hives, 140
Coriander, 141
Corn, 142
Corn-salad, 143
Cress, 144
Canker, 288
Caterpillar, 301
Cotton-blight, 28'.>
Cucumber, 1 15
Cultivation, :>9 to 64, 103 to 117
Curwen. Mr. no
t.. par igraphi.
Cuttings, 203
Chilworlh, 19
Chantilly, 314
Comble, M. de, 299
Cobham, 285
Dill, 146
Diseases of trees, 287
Drummond, Mr. H. 19
Ear-wig, 308
Edgings, 41
Eden, Sir Frederick, 314
Enclosing, 30 to 55
Endive, 147
Espalier, 258, 259
Epsom Down, 314
Evelyn, Sir P 19
Farnham, 14
Fennel, 148
Fencing, 30 to 35
Flowers, Alphabetical list of, 413
, borders of, 41 1
, beds of, 41 1
, propagation and cultiva-
tion of, 412 ^
Fitzwilliams, Sir Williain^l4
Form of garden, 28, 29
Flies, 360
Forsyth, Mr. 299
Flowers, 321
Garlick, 149
Gourd, 150
Green-houses, 56 to 58
Goblet form, 254
Gravel walks, 40, 313
Grass, short, 3 1 4
Garden, situation for, 13 to 19
, soil for, 20 to 27
, form of, 28, 29
walls, 29
, fences for, 30 to 35
, laying out of, 35 to 46
, walks for, 40
Grafting, 206 to 211
Gum, 292
Hampton Court, 285
Half-standard, 256
Hedges, 32 to 35, 39
Mot-beds, 49 to 55
Hunter, Orby, 1 1
Hortta Kewensit, Col
338
Hop, 151
Horse-radish, 152
Hyssop, 153
Huckleberry, 272
Jerusalem Artichoke, 154
Knives, pruning, 225
Layers, 202
Lavender, 155
Leek, 156
Lettuce, 157
Long Island, 259
Lice, 291
Manure, 26
Maggot, 294
Marshall, Mr. 82, 205
Missing, Mr. 115
Moles, 298
Montreuil, 247
Mildew, 290
Mice, 296
Mangel Wurzel, 158
Marjorum, 159
Marigold, 160
Mint, 162
Mushroom, 163
Mustard, 164
Nailing, 250
Nasturtium, 165
Onion, ffe' tbj
Orleans, the Duke of, 314
Orchards, 259
Painshill, 259
Parsley, 167
Parsnip, 166
Pea, 169 '
Pennyroyal, 170
Potato, 171
Pumpkin, 172
Purslane, 173
Planting, 219
Piatt, Mr. 259
Propagation, 59 to 64, 199 to 204
Pruning, 222 to 249
Pyramid form, 253
Radish, 174
Rampion, 175
Rape, 176
Rhubarb, 177
Raspberry, 282
Rats, 297
Rich, Sir Robert, 14
Richardson, Mr. 225
INDEX.
Koots, their extent, 210
Rook-worm, 304
Rosemary, 178
Rue, 179
Rutabaga, 180
Salt, 27
Sage, 181
Salsafy, 182
Samphire, 182
Savory, 184
Savoy, 185
Scorzenera, 186
Shalot, 187
Skirret, 188
Sorrel, 189
Spinage, 190
Squash, 191
Seed, 65 to 84
Service, 283
Slips, 201
Stocks, 205
Spider, 300
Situation for a garden, 14 to 19
Snail, 302
Slug, 303
Swift, 259
Shrubs, Alphabetical list of
Sowing, 85 to 95
Standard-trees, 260
Soil, 20 to 27
Shrubberies, 312
Tansey, 192
Tarragon, 193
Thyme, 194
Tomatum, 195
Turnip, 196
Training trees, 222
Transplanting, 96 to 102
Trenching, 23
Tull, Mr. 10,110, 205
Vermin, 287
Vine, 285
Voltaire, M.de, 11
Walks, 40,313
Walnut, 28
Wasps, 309
Waverley Abbev, 13
Walls, 29
Weeds, 205
Wire-worm, 306
Wood-louse, 307
Wormwood, 197
Piinlfdlfj MilU.Jowett, nnd Mills, Boll court, Flee!
SB ^3 C b3 1^33
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JLksDUE DATE
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